DMC: End of the Line SE
by Sin Oan
Summary: Dante seeks out the God of Time in an effort to learn what the Underworld has planned next, and finds he must ally himself with an old enemy if he is to have any chance of combating the return of the Dark Emperor.
1. Chapter 1

UPDATE: 23/06/11 - Wow, I first wrote this like five years ago. This was my first DMC fic and pretty much the first serious fanfic I ever wrote. Despite writing it so long ago I still kinda like it, but looking back over it my lack of practice at writing really shows. So then! I have decided to go back over this entire story and edit it to correct spelling errors, typos etc, and to generally tidy the whole thing up and make it easier to read. Even if you've read this fic before, maybe you could check it out again once I'm done cleaning it up - it's been so long since I first uploaded this that maybe you might enjoy reading it again.

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**DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART I

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The bright neon sign flickered in the morning light. The words - Devil Never Cry. Officially it was a Mercenary/Security firm for hire. Unofficially, it was a devil hunting agency ran by a select group of elite demon killers. If a job involved supernatural forces, malevolent spirits or infernal threats to humanity, Devil Never Cry would be there to fight it without fail.

Except that for the past six months it had not accepted a single job. The simple reason behind this was that for the last six months there had been no demonic activity to investigate or combat. Nothing. No monsters. No creatures. Nothing going bump in the night. It was all quiet. _Too_ quiet, even.

Trish sat behind the front desk, legs crossed, head resting in her hands. Her long golden hair fell across one side of her face and her crystal eyes struggled to remain open. She was waiting for a call - for some sign of a potential job. They had all been waiting in vain for so long now. It was as if the Underworld had packed up and moved on.

It had in fact been quiet for so long now that, out of desperation, Dante had gone off in search of some ancient oracle in a bid to learn just what was going on. He'd been gone for nearly two weeks now and she'd heard nothing from him. She wasn't overly worried though - if anyone could take care of themselves the Legendary Son of Sparda could.

There was a click. Trish's eyes shot open and she jerked up, wide awake and alert in an instant. It was the front door. The handle was slowly turning. Silently she reached across and grasped the hilt of her weapon - the great Sparda sword, named after its legendary wielder - which rested against the side of the desk.

The door opened, and in strode Dante - white hair, red jacket and his Rebellion sword strapped across his back. Letting out a sigh of relief, Trish let go of the Sparda sword and stood up. "Dante," she said as the devil hunter himself closed the door behind him and wordlessly crossed the planked floor towards her,"Good to see you. I thought you were in Tibet though, searching for that oracle?"

Dante said nothing. He stopped in front of the desk and stared at her.

"Dante ... where's Lady?" Trish asked, puzzled by his demeanour. He at last opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when the phone rang. Trish shot a look at it, then back at Dante who remained motionless in front of the desk. Frowning, Trish picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.

"Devil Never Cry," Trish announced.

_"Trish?"_ came the crackling response.

"Lady? Is that you?"

_"Yeah, just calling to check in and let you know everything's ok."_

"Right. Where are you?"

The line was washed out by heavy static. After a few seconds it cleared and she heard Lady's voice perfectly again. _"Sorry about that, weathers pretty bad up here. We stopped off at this village; we're just resting before the final leg. Think the Temple's not far from here."_

"We? What do you mean? You're still in Tibet? Is Dante with you?"

More static. Then; _"Of course. Why? Do you want to talk to him?"_

A chill shot down Trish's spine. She looked up into the perfect features of the man she knew as Dante - standing a few feet in front of her on the other side of the desk. He was staring right at her with cool, unblinking eyes. She opened her mouth to speak and felt something hot and wet trickle down her cheek. Puzzled, she looked down.

Sticking in her chest was Dante's sword. She coughed and looked up into his clear, apathetic face.

_"Trish? Trish is something wrong?" _Lady called from the other end of the line. The receiver fell from Trish's hand and clunked onto the desk. Dante - or what looked like Dante - twisted his sword violently in her gut, then yanked it out in one swift motion. All sound and feeling had washed out from her as Trish found herself falling ...

Dante flicked the blood from his sword and calmly walked around the desk. With careful, deliberate movements he reached over and grasped the hilt of the Sparda sword with his free hand. On the desk, Lady's voice continued to shout over bursts of intermittent static, until Dante picked up the receiver and silently replaced it.

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A/N: The first chapter! I thought that while I'm updating this and smoothing it over, I might make some observations, sort of retroactive thoughts, what I think of it looking back five years after writing it. This was okay for a start, though a bit short. These days I usually try and make my average chapter about 1.5k words at least.

And yes, I killed Trish off. I regret that now, because I actually like her character these days. I didn't really back then, which might have been why I killed her off. I might have been trying to keep the cast small to make it easier to write, though I'm not sure if I want to give myself that much credit. Honestly, I probably killed her off because I didn't like her at the time. If I were writing this now I definitely wouldn't kill her off, and would have written her into the overall story as a main character.

Also, the title of this fic sucks. I don't even know how I came up with it. By the time I'm finished editing this old thing I might actually change the title and bump it with a bonus chapter under a new name.


	2. Chapter 2

UPDATE: 23/06/11 - Continuing my retro revamp of this old fanfic of mine, I have decided to rename the fic 'End of the Line SE', the SE standing for Special Edition, because that's kinda what this will be when I'm done. A sort of directors cut cleanup if you will. As before I will add an author's note section to the end of this and all following chapters, detailing my present day thoughts looking back on this story. Enjoy!

* * *

**DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART II

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"What's up?" Dante asked. Lady shrugged and stared at the phone.

"Lost the connection I guess." She put the phone down and buttoned up her thick coat. They were in the coldest place she had ever seen in her entire life, with much snow, wind, hail, more snow, gales and yet more snow.

"Anyway, you speak the lingo they use here," said Dante, jerking a thumb over his shoulder towards the room he had just come from, "You sort out the payment, I don't understand a word they're saying."

Lady rolled her eyes and nodded. "Is that all you're wearing?" she asked, staring up and down at him. "You do know that a lot of your body heat is lost through your head, right? Shouldn't you have a hat or something?"

Dante laughed and thumped his chest. "Nah, I'm hardcore." As it was, he _had_ conceded to put on a fur lined jacket (red, of course) and a decent pair of gloves. Even demon blood could get chilled in a climate like this.

They set off five minutes later, icy winds blowing horizontally into their eyes and faces, stinging and biting any exposed skin. The going was slow as usual, as they had to not only traverse a difficult and narrow path up the mountainside, but through several feet of snow. Their transport had packed in at the village they had just stopped at, the cold putting the engine out of commission.

"Really puts a whole new spin on the phrase 'When Hell freezes over!'" Dante smirked through frozen lips. He reached into one of his pockets and withdrew a pair of shades. Lady did the same - the harsh glare from the snowscape and lack of contrast was giving her snow blindness.

It took them many long hours of difficult work to reach a high ledge near the summit. After resting for ten minutes they set off again, following the ledge around to the other side of the mountain. Much to Lady's relief the snow and wind eased up a little and visibility became an option once again.

"Jackpot," said Dante, stopping ahead of her. She walked up beside him and stared down at what he was pointing at.

Lying in a narrow valley nestled between the mountain range, surrounded by an ever-present blizzard, was the Temple of Ages. An ancient structure dedicated to the God of Time, an omniscient being that offered knowledge and power in exchange for blood sacrifice. It was this they had come in search of, travelling halfway around the globe to find. Legend had it that within this temple was a statue that served as an Oracle, one that could answer any question conceivable ... for a price. Dante was convinced the drop in Underworld activity heralded something big and unpleasant. He wanted to know what was going on before it exploded into his back yard - again.

Lady groaned as she lowered her gaze more, taking in the long and very treacherous route down the mountainside towards the narrow valley where the temple lay situated. "It'll take us all day to get down there," she protested. Dante said nothing. He stood and glanced around, down, and then up. Finally he reached across his back and drew his sword, Rebellion.

"What are you doing?" Lady asked, watching him with curiosity.

"Taking a shortcut," was his cryptic response. He pulled out several leather straps from his coat, laid his sword down on the ground and proceeded to strap his feet to the blade. Lady watched on, utterly confused.

"Give me your rocket launcher," he instructed, holding out his hands.

"Dante, what _are_ you up to?"

"Trust me!" he said, grinning like a maniac. Reluctantly, she hoisted her launcher around and handed it over.

"Right, now get on me."

"Excuse me?"

"My back! Piggyback onto me! C'mon, we haven't got all day!"

Still not comprehending what his plan was, she climbed onto his back and clasped her hands around his neck. "I have a bad feeling about this ..." she said in a worried tone. Dante grinned.

"Hold on tight!"

Suddenly he aimed Kalina-Ann straight up and fired. The rocket burst forth and shot through the frigid air. Lady watched it go, and her eyes widened in shock as she realised it was heading straight for a ledge above them. "Are you crazy?" she cried out as the projectile impacted with a dull boom that echoed for miles around. Dante lowered the weapon and leaned forward as the entire mountain began shaking violently. Before Lady knew what was happening, they were slammed into by a sheet of flowing ice and compacted snow.

Lady screamed loudly as the avalanche buffeted and roared around them. In a sudden flash, they were no longer being washed along but were skimming over the top of the snow. She caught her breath and, dazed, stared down and realised that Dante was riding his sword like a snowboard.

"Yee-Ha-Ha-Ha!" he yelled, exuberant as they shot down the mountain at breakneck speed, scenery flashing past at an alarming rate.

"Dante, look out!" Lady cried out a warning as the ground in front of them disappeared. Dante tensed and leaned forward. They approached the edge and shot over it. There was a great feeling of weightlessness - for all of a second - before gravity caught up with them and gave them a gut-wrenching tug back to earth.

Screaming again, Lady squeezed her eyes shut and clung so tightly to Dante that she was afraid she might strangle him. Freezing air whipped and buffeted them as they fell. With a bone-jarring crash they impacted on a drift and skidded on. Her eyes shot open and she saw an even more alarming sight - the great stone doors to the temple looming ahead. The avalanche roared deafeningly behind them as they zipped ahead of it and skidded across the snow-covered stones that lead into the entrance.

"Dante!" she warned, as the massive doors grew closer. Grinning like a madman, Dante raised Kalina-Ann and let rip. The next thing she knew they were shooting through a cloud of fire and stone as their momentum carried them through the jagged hole Dante had blown into the ancient doors.

As they skidded across bare stone ground and into an enormous, dark entrance hall, Dante swerved his sword, turning them 180 and bringing them to a stop. They watched as the avalanche slammed into the front of the temple, the force of it shattering the entrance to rubble, which slowly and ponderously caved in.

After what seemed like an age, everything settled down. The front doors and much of the surrounding walls were totalled - a wreck of stone, mortar, granite and snow.

"WOO!" Dante hollered, his shout echoing back and forth around the empty hall. He turned and looked over his shoulder at Lady, who was still clutching onto him in shock. "Hey, that was fun! Wanna go again?"

Lady stared at him and shook her head.

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A/N: Second chapter! I quite like the snowboarding down an avalanche using a sword thing, it seems a very Dante thing to do. In case it isn't obvious, I based Dante's personality on his DMC3 version, which at the time was my favourite. This fic was written before DMC4 was released, and personally now I like DMC4 Dante the best. Having said that DMC4 Dante isn't that different from his DMC3 self, just a bit more grown up. Not much else to say right now, so onwards to the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

UPDATE: 23/06/11 - Chapter revamped as part of my attempt to clean the story up and make it more readable.

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**DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART III

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"HEELLLOOOO!"

HELLO

Hello

'llo

"Is there an echo in here?"

An echo in here

Echo in here

Here

"Dante, cut it out."

Dante smirked and slung the Rebellion over his back once more. "Nice place," he observed, "Bet its costs a bunch to heat."

"That would be why they didn't bother then," said Lady through chattering teeth. For some inexplicable reason it was actually colder in here than it was outside. "Come on, lets start searching."

Dante spun around, checking the vast and empty stone hall for any clues. There were magnificent pillars and statues made in the likeness of the Time God (albeit the regular, non-commercial variety) but nothing that looked like what they were after.

"Eeny meeny miny ... moe!" He stabbed a finger randomly in one direction and proceeded to march off in it, Lady shivering along beside him.

"Aren't you cold at all?"

Dante shook his head. "Must be my natural hotness."

"Ha!"

After a few minutes they came upon a nondescript and unremarkable double door set into the glossy smooth stone. Dante walked right up to them and planted a kick between them, blasting them open.

"You really like wrecking things don't you?" said Lady. Dante shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm an impulsive kinda guy."

The room they found themselves in now was long and rectangular, the walls bearing carved decorations, though of what they couldn't tell. On the left and right hand walls were two enormous brass gongs, seemingly fixed into the walls themselves.

"Hey, is that?" Dante asked, pointing at the far wall opposite the door they had entered. Resting upon an enormous pedestal was a great golden statue of-

"It's a Sphinx," Lady observed, stepping further into the room. Beneath the statue, imbedded within the pedestal, was a glowing silver key resting inside a recess.

"Oh, here we go." Dante muttered, striding up to it. He reached out to grasp it, but a field of shimmering light materialised before the recess, preventing him from getting the key. Suddenly, the eyes of the Sphinx statue flared like twin suns above them and a deep booming voice reverberated around the chamber.

_"My daughter has many sisters, as many sisters as she has brothers, but each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers. So answer me this, how many sons and daughters do I have?"_

The voice died away, echoes continuing to sound for some time after. Dante and Lady turned to each other, eyebrows raised.

"A riddle, obviously," said Lady. Dante groaned.

"Screw that!" He pulled Ivory, one of his twin handguns, and levelled it at the force field.

"Wait!" Lady exclaimed, whirling to stand in front of him, "That won't do any good!"

"Won't know until I try," he reasoned.

"But I can figure this out! It'll be easy!"

"So will this!" he insisted, waving Ivory in front of her. She rolled her eyes and held both hands before him.

"Just let me try, please?"

Now it was Dante who rolled his eyes. Sighing, he replaced Ivory and stepped back. Lady let out a deep breath and turned to the Sphinx.

"My daughter has many sisters, as many sisters as she has brothers …" she started to repeat the riddle, eyes darting about as she did quick calculations. Behind her, Dante was tapping his feet. "But each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers …"

"Times up," he said, swiftly drawing his sword and slashing at the shielded recess.

"Dante, no!" Lady cried out, dodging out of the way. The Rebellion sword slammed into the hazy energy field, creating a shower of sparks. It rebounded, and to his disappointment the force field remained unaffected.

"I told you that wouldn't work," Lady snapped, irritated by how impatient he was. Dante just shrugged and slung his sword across his back holster. Suddenly the ground began to shake beneath their feet. They heard a loud whining noise, almost like an aircraft engine starting up from behind the walls either side of them. As the tremors built in strength, Lady looked down at the ground and then up at Dante. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Dante.

"Don't," he said, "Just don't."

They were yanked off their feet and found themselves sailing back through the air. They came to a stop with a deafening clang as they struck the gongs mounted on the walls, Dante on the left wall and Lady on the right. Rather than slide down and onto the floor however, they remained fixed in place, stuck to the large brass circles.

"Magnets!" Lady shouted over the din, "There must be some kind of generator behind the walls powering giant magnets!" Which went some way to explain why they found themselves unable to struggle free. Dante was stuck to the gong by the magnetic pull from the sword on his back, and Lady likewise with her rocket launcher. They both dangled half a dozen feet from the ground, struggling back and forth like overturned turtles.

"Ok, definitely not cool," Dante grumbled. But of course, things had to get worse. As the last of the echoes from the gongs faded away, the eyes on the great Sphinx statue flared a deep red. An even deeper tremor shot through the chamber as the gold around the Sphinx shattered and scattered away. A real life and decidedly pissed looking Sphinx sprang off the pedestal and shook the last of the gold casing from its body. Still attached to the gongs on the walls, Lady and Dante watched on helpless as it barred rows of sharp teeth and flexed its razor claws.

The demonic Sphinx prowled across the floor, turning its great head this way and that, examining its prey. It fixed its glowing red eyes on Lady and calmly padded over towards her. She struggled with the strap holding the Kalina-Ann to her back as the beast drew closer.

"Hey you!" Dante shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth for added volume, "Yeah, you! Dumb cat! Look at me when I'm trash talking to you!"

The Sphinx stopped and turned its head back, narrowing its eyes at Dante. Its snout curled up in a twisted snarl and it let out a deep growl.

"Yeah, that's right! Come get me you stupid animal! Time for your Felix!"

The Sphinx turned and sprang in one swift motion, covering the distance between them in a heartbeat, teeth barred and ready to clamp down over his throat, claws extended and ready to rake his flesh. Dante could smell the fetid stench of rotten meat from its breath as it sailed through the air …

… and straight into his fist. He drove it right into the beast's snout with all the force of a jackhammer, sending the magnificent creature sprawling onto the ground below him.

"BAD KITTY!" he scolded, unlatching the strap for his sword and dropping lightly to his feet. The Sphinx snarled and flipped onto its paws, letting out a roar of fury at the puny human. It lashed out with one long claw, determined to knock his legs out from under him. Dante leapt up and drove the ball of his right foot into its face with a satisfying crunch.

The Sphinx recoiled, darting away. It circled back around, warily eyeing him. Lady watched on open mouthed as they leapt on each other in a tangled blur of fists and claws. A second later they separated again, the Sphinx skidding across the polished stone on all fours, Dante somersaulting backwards and landing on his feet. He was uninjured, but raised his left arm and stared at a score of tears in his jacket sleeve that had been the result of a close call.

A low growl filled the air, building up in intensity and rage. It took a moment for Lady to realise that it was coming not from the demon Sphinx, but from Dante. His face a mask of angry disbelief, he stared at the cuts in his sleeve that the beast had raked, and then slowly raised his furious gaze and fixed it on the creature …

Two minutes later Dante silently retrieved his sword and guns. As Lady came up along side him, he tossed her the key and strolled past.

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A/N: This chapter shows the first of several traps that protect the temple. I think I used an old D&D traps book for most of them, and the riddle I got from an old game book. To this day I still have no clue what the heck the answer to that riddle is. I used an actual riddle contest between Dante's mother Eva and a dragon of all things in one of my other fics, Nightwalkers, which actually does include the answers to each of the riddles posed. The riddle battle in that is one of the few bits I actually still like about that fic.


	4. Chapter 4

******DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART IV

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They spent some time searching the vast Temple of Ages. It was mostly cold and dark and empty, and the only problem they had run into was the Sphinx room where they had found the key. The key itself unlocked a small metal door in a chamber to the west of the main entrance hall. Dante and Lady descended a flight of steps, their footfalls echoing through the silent passageways. As the darkness closed in, Lady pulled out a flashlight and used it to illuminate the way ahead.

After five minutes of traversing more steps and corridors, they came to a circular recess in the wall. The passage they had been following continued on for a dozen more feet and turned a corner. Lady and Dante stopped before the recess, examining it in the cool white light from the torch.

"Looks like a lift," Dante observed, his breath misting as he spoke. Lady nodded and played her flashlight over the wall beside it, the light glinting off a copper plaque.

"There's something written here. It's Acadian Cuneiform," she said.

"Come again?"

"One of the earliest forms of writing."

"Can you read it?" Dante asked. Lady nodded and stepped closer, peering at the symbols engraved on the plaque.

"It says; _'Step inside, take a ride.'_"

"Really?"

"I think so."

They stood, considering this for a moment. Finally Dante snorted and walked straight past the lift. "Hell with that," he said, disappearing around the corner up ahead. Lady watched him, open mouthed in exasperation. She considered calling out to him, thought better of it, and with a weary sigh hurried after him.

After the corner they found a steep flight of spiral stairs that wound down, hundreds of steps leading them deep underground. At least the exertion was helping to keep her warm, Lady noted wryly. The stairs finally reached an end and they found themselves in a very narrow corridor.

"Aren't you the least bit worried that we're lost?" Lady asked her devil hunting partner, who merely shrugged.

"Not really. Unlike your average run of the mill human, _I_ always know exactly where I'm going." He stopped abruptly, Lady running into the back of him and rebounding.

"What?" she asked irritably. Dante crossed his arms and cleared his throat.

"It's a dead end."

An embarrassed silence hung in the air. Finally Lady squeezed past him and shone her flashlight against the impassive face of a stone wall. It was very much a dead end.

"Wait ..." she murmured, stepping closer to the wall, "There's something carved into the stone ... more cuneiform."

"Really? What does it say."

Lady fell silent, her lips mouthing wordlessly as she translated the ancient language. Suddenly she froze, a chill shooting down her spine. Dante noticed her tense up. "What? What does it say?" he pressed. Lady swallowed, hard.

"_'You'll regret that …'_"

All around them the tiny, cramped passageway began to shake and rock, powerful tremors shooting through the ground and walls. Lady turned and glared at her co-worker, then silently reached up and slapped him across the back of the head as the passageway began to collapse around them.

* * *

Meanwhile on the island of Vie de Mari ...

Lucia smiled as Dante approached. It had been nearly a year since she had seen him last, and together they had thwarted the plans of Arius and Argosax. It was good to see him again.

"Dante," she nodded as he stopped before her, "I got your message; Matier is waiting for you."

Dante didn't answer. He followed her as she led him to a small cottage down a beaten dirt path. He followed her inside, and silently strolled past her as she gestured for him to proceed into the next room. A bent over, worn and aged figure of a woman - Matier, Lucia's adoptive mother - turned and smiled as Dante walked in. "I knew you would come, Son of Sparda. You have a question to ask. I already know the answer."

The impostors mouth twitched slightly, imperceptibly, almost as if he was suppressing a grin ...

* * *

A/N: Wow, this was a short chapter, measuring in at just over seven hundred words. I don't think I had any definite plan when I was writing this fic, I think I was pretty much just making it up as I went along.


	5. Chapter 5

******DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART V

* * *

The passage rumbled and shook apart around them. Dante and Lady dropped into a crouch and threw their arms over their heads. The next thing they knew they were being showered in what felt like sand. Glancing up, they saw to their astonishment that the massive stone blocks of the collapsing corridor had dissolved completely into a fine powder, which flowed over them and disappeared below.

"The hell?" Dante muttered, standing up. Well, he thought, there was certainly a lot _more _below now. With the walls and ceiling gone, the floor the two devil hunters were standing on was now little more than a narrow stone ledge spanning a vast, cavernous chamber. Looking down, all they could see was blackness broken up by more criss-crossing walkways, almost like a spiders web.

"Ok, now what?" Lady asked, glancing over Dante's shoulder. The stairwell they had descended to get here had completely vanished, leaving only a blank stretch of wall. Spooky. As Dante opened his mouth to answer something shot past him in a blur. He was knocked onto his back and Lady was hurled from the walkway. In an instant Dante was back on his feet and leaning over the edge to search for his partner. He saw her flashlight tumble away into the abyss below.

It fell for a _very _long time.

"Lady!" he called out. No answer. He cupped his hands around his mouth and tried again. "Hey! Girl, if you're dead can I have your iPod?"

"No!" came the angry response. Dante turned his gaze in the direction of the sound and saw to his relief that she was hanging precariously from a ledge a dozen feet below. "But if I was dead how exactly was I supposed to answer you?" she asked through clenched teeth. Dante smirked and shot a look around for some way to get down to were she was. Suddenly Lady's eyes widened in shock.

"Dante, look out!"

With instincts and reflexes born as much from years of demon hunting as they were from his father's inheritance, Dante jerked forwards, throwing himself from the walkway just as something fast and presumably dangerous took a swipe at where he had been standing a moment before. As he fell his hand shot out and grabbed the lip of the very same walkway and, using his momentum, he swung himself up and around like a monkey swinging through the trees - depositing himself with a mid-air flip back upon the very same ledge he had just thrown himself off. Landing with a thud of his boots, his twin handguns were out in a flash and zeroing in on the attacker.

It was a huge beast, easily the size of an elephant, though it was certainly no Dumbo. It had the body and head of a lion (albeit with blood red fur), a scorpion's tail and the wings of a bird. If any bird had a wingspan bigger than a building that is. The manticore (for that was the name of such a creature) soared gracefully through the cavern, tilting its huge wings and cutting a tight turn. As it came back on itself and dived through the air at the comparatively tiny Dante, he opened fire, peppering its hide and face with small arms fire. He may as well have spat at it for all the good they did, as the bullets failed to even draw blood. He seriously had to look at upgrading them, he silently cursed. Maybe with uranium bullets ...

With a roar the manticore snapped its jaws at him. Dante somersaulted back, gravity quickly dragging him down and sending him plummeting into the cavern depths. As the air whistled past him and he saw more platforms and ledges shoot past, he tightened his jaw and kicked off thin air, executing a Sky Star that propelled him forwards. He tossed Ebony & Ivory into the air, reached out and grabbed a looming ledge and flipped up onto it. Standing defiantly on safe ground once again, he clapped his hands and held them up into the air.

Ebony & Ivory fell into his waiting grasp.

Whirling around and holstering his ineffective pistols, he spotted Lady. She had managed to climb up on her own and was spraying the flying demon with equally useless gunfire from her Scorpion machine pistol. Dante watched as the Manticore swooped in towards her, its tail rearing up behind it as Lady whipped her rocket launcher around.

A volley of green darts burst from the tip of the creatures tail as Lady brought Kalina-Ann up defensively, the heavy barrel deflecting the poison barbs away. The demon's flight carried it past her, but the spunky devil slayer was far from finished. She levelled her launcher at the underside of it as it shot past and fired the bayonet tip. It imbedded itself in the demons flesh with a dull thunk. Lady was yanked off the platform as the wire connecting the bayonet and her launcher pulled her off her feet and left her dangling quite literally by a thread, whilst the manticore flew on unawares.

Grinning, Dante set off. That woman had a style all of her own. He dashed along the ledge he was on, sighted a floating platform to his right and leapt, his demonic heritage allowing him to make a long jump that would have broken all the Olympic records. Landing lightly, he tracked the winged demon's flight and leapt again, sailing through the air and kicking off the side of a hanging stone ledge.

A series of leaps and bounds later and Dante found himself on a rock overlooking the manticore and, still dangling below it, Lady. She swerved to one side to avoid a stalagmite and hit the retract button on her launcher, causing the mechanism to winch her up. Still smiling, Dante counted to three and jumped ...

... with another Sky Star boost he landed squarely on the flying behemoth just as his associate pulled herself up from below. "Nice," he said, nodding to her in approval, "You know, this thing would make one hell of a cool jacket," he added, indicating the red fur of the beast. Lady rolled her eyes.

Without further ado Dante drew his sword, ran across the manticore's back and jammed the weapon in between its shoulder blades, right where its wings joined to its body. The monster let out a howl of pain and executed a mid-air roll, swivelling itself upside down and hurling the pair from its back. They both landed with a jarring crash upon a narrow ledge, helpless on their backs as the infuriated demon bore down on them, claws extended and tail poised.

Lady raised the detonator in her right hand and depressed the switch, setting off the explosives she had strapped to the manticore before being tipped off. With an ear-splitting crack the monster was engulfed in flames. It let out wailing shriek that was like fingernails being dragged across a blackboard.

Dante and Lady got up and watched the fireball plummet into the abyss below, slowly dwindling away just as their flashlight had done before. They looked up at each other and Dante gave a resigned sigh.

"So much for my new jacket."

* * *

A/N: Fight scene! I think this was not too bad. I edited out the comic book sound effects, but otherwise left the content more or less unchanged. I think I had the knack of writing over the top DMC style fights. This fic certainly has its fair share of them. In fact I'd go so far as to say I was actually better at writing fight scenes five years ago when I first wrote this, than I am now. I guess my imagination was geared more towards fights then, whereas these days I'd rather write a mushy romantic scene instead ... wow, I've changed.


	6. Chapter 6

**********DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART VI

* * *

"Do you want to know why they call this the Temple of Ages?" Dante asked in a conversational tone whilst Lady was busy reloading.

"Why's that?" she asked, only half listening.

"Because it takes ages to find what you're looking for!"

He paced back and forth along the new corridor they were now in. It felt like they had been searching the place for days. Dante stopped and gave the wall a frustrated kick. Suddenly it began to shake, dust cascading down its polished surface. Lady stopped and glared at him.

"What did you do?" she said in accusatory tones. Before he could answer, a false section of wall slid up into the ceiling, revealing a sturdy metal door built like a hatch. Dante stared at it for a moment.

"See?" he said, glancing back at Lady's astonished expression, "I _always _know where I'm going."

He grabbed the handle and yanked the door open, stepping into the room beyond without so much as a hint of caution. Sighing, Lady hefted her weapons and followed him in. The room beyond was perfectly round, with a high ceiling and an identical metal door set flush into the wall opposite. Beyond that the chamber was completely devoid of ... anything. They couldn't even tell what was lighting it.

"There's nothing here." Lady observed, glancing around in all directions in case she had missed something.

"Well there's another door," Dante pointed, strolling off across the empty room towards the door opposite.

"Dante, wait-" Lady tried to caution. As usual, he paid her words of warning no attention whatsoever.

CLANG!

The noise sounded as Dante approached the second door. They spun, weapons raised, and saw that the first door they had entered through had slammed shut. There was an audible hiss of air, and Lady had a sneaking suspicion that they were now trapped in an airtight room. She voiced her concern to her untroubled partner, who merely shrugged once again.

"Hey, no skin off my nose - I don't need to breath."

"I do!"

"Oh yeah ..." he murmured, as if he had forgotten. As Lady rolled her eyes, Dante tried the handle of the second door. It was, unsurprisingly, locked. He took a step back and planted a kick on it.

"Door's solid," he said.

"Great," Lady muttered, pacing around the room, "I'm either going to suffocate or starve to death."

"I think I've still got a Mars Bar somewhere," Dante said, patting his pockets absent-mindedly. Lady groaned.

"Dante, what are we going to _do?_"

He paused thoughtfully, staring at the door. "Well, we could find out what this inscription here says."

There was a laboured silence. "What inscription?" Lady asked at last, staring at him.

"This one here - on the door," he replied, pointing calmly at the scrawled cuneiform script carved into the metalwork.

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"I just did!"

She let out another frustrated groan and pushed past him, her eyes darting about as she scanned the ancient message. After about a minute she stepped back, frowning. "Huh," she said, "It says to open this door all we have to do is stand in the corner of the room."

"Well all right then, no prob-" Dante started to say. He cut off as they both turned and once again noticed that they were in a perfectly round room.

With no corners.

"Eh, are you sure you read that right?"

"Yes! I'm positive!"

"Well ... that doesn't make any sense."

"Yes, thank you, I can see that."

Lady turned back and re-read the inscription anyway, while Dante walked over to the edge of the room and stamped his foot down on the floor. He tried again somewhere else. Lady glanced at him, then tried the door.

"Still locked."

"Great." Pause. "You want that Mars Bar now?"

Lady opened her mouth to snap off a witty remark, but stopped as they heard a grating sound from above. Cold dread filling their stomachs, they both glanced up and saw that the ceiling was moving. Dante frowned as he watched it. At first glance he assumed it was sinking down - obviously to squash them flat.

It was in fact rising.

"Hey, Lady?"

"Yeah?" she said, still craning her neck up at the ceiling.

"I'm no expert, but in situations like these ... shouldn't that thing be coming down, not going up?"

"I would have thought so too."

They looked at each other, then back up at the ceiling. Dante glanced back at his associate and his frown deepened. "Hey, are you all right?" he asked.

"What? Why?"

"Your nose is bleeding," He explained. She shot him a quizzical look and reached up to touch her nose. Her fingers came away bloody.

"What the ... ?"

"Whoa! Did you feel that?"

Their ears had just popped.

Lady nodded, staring mutely at the blood on her fingers. Slowly realisation dawned on her. Her face filled with fear and her eyes widened in horror, a hot ball of dread sinking into the pit of her stomach as she put the pieces together in her mind. "Damn, I should have realised - the ceiling," she pointed. "As it's rising, the air pressure in this room is lowering. The air is getting thinner by the second!" She staggered as she said this, her eyes blinking, becoming unfocused.

"Well that's bad." Dante noted. Lady blinked and managed to fix her eyes on him for a moment.

"Ya think?"

She collapsed onto the floor, unconscious. Dante dropped down beside her, but there was nothing he could do. Looking up, he saw that yes, the ceiling was _still _going up, turning the circular room into a sort of stone tube, or plunger.

"Crap," he swore under his breath, casting a look around. Stand in the corner. The corner, she said. But that didn't make any sense! It was a round room, it didn't have any corners! You can't fit a square peg through a round hole!

As Dante started to panic, Lady's lips and fingernails began to turn blue. If he didn't figure this out soon, she was as good as dead ...

* * *

A/N: I thought this chapter had some nice character touches in it for Dante. The mars bar remark and the 'I don't need to breath - oh yeah, you do ...' in particular were neat. The trap they get stuck in is pretty sneaky as well, even though it only really affects Lady.


	7. Chapter 7

**********DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART VII

* * *

Dante paced frantically around the edge of the room, making several full circuits of it in an effort to stand somewhere that might qualify as a 'corner' in what was a perfectly round room. He hurried over to the door and tried yanking the handle, but it still refused to budge. He tried hammering on it, hitting it with Rebellion, even shooting it.

The door remained firmly locked.

"Dammit!" he yelled in frustration, pounding on the metalwork with his gloved fists. He stopped and turned around. Lady lay sprawled on the cold floor, the colour rapidly draining from her. If he didn't find a way out of here in the next few minutes ...

"Okay Dante, _think!_" He started pacing back and forth. He ran his hand through his hair, which was slick with sweat. Stand in the corner ... the corner. There wasn't one! But there had to be! He could try using some of Lady's explosives to blast a way out ... no, the concussive force of the explosion in such a confined room would kill her for sure.

Damn. This wasn't his style. Dante wasn't stupid, but as plans went he generally favoured the 'run in and shoot everything in sight' strategy that had served him so well in the past. He usually left tactics and such for his partner. A memory of a recent job surfaced to the front of his mind.

_"A hotel full of evil spirits and panicking guests. Not a good combination," Lady said, tapping her finger on the phone that had delivered the news, "Do we have any sort of a plan?" _

_Dante laughed. "Plans are for builders and mad scientists who want to rule the world. I've got charm," he cocked Ebony & Ivory, "And guns."_

To say he leaned towards a ham-fisted approach to any situation was putting it mildly. But now his tried and tested method had failed him.

Or had it?

He stopped. If you wanted to put a square peg through a round hole ... why, you just needed to apply a little something special. A hammer to be precise.

Grinning as the idea took full hold in his mind, he quickly drew his sword and rushed over to the smooth, curved stone wall. He pulled the Rebellion back and let it fly, slamming it into the place where the wall and floor met. A small stone chip flew away. Drawing on all the strength he had, he began hammering away at the ground, knocking larger and larger chunks of stone away until he had -

"A corner!" he said with a satisfied expression. He eagerly stepped into his hacked-out section of floor and turned to glance at the door. There was an audible clunk of the mechanism and a familiar hiss of air. Not wasting any time, he rushed forwards and scooped Lady up into his arms, wrenched the door open at last and set her down in the wide, dimly lit room beyond, stopping only to see that it was free of any immediate danger.

Lady lay still. Unmoving. This wasn't simply because she was unconscious anymore.

She had stopped breathing.

"Crap," Dante swore. He knelt beside her and started CPR. He stopped to check for a pulse, then started again. Still nothing. He leaned over, closed her nose and pressed his mouth to her blue lips, breathing air into her. He stopped to check if she was breathing before trying again. "Come on! Wake up Lady!" He resumed CPR, fire raging through his head, blinking perspiration from his eyes. "If you die on me I am _so_ taking your iPod!"

Still nothing.

"Dammit Lady! I thought you were a fighter!" He slammed his fist down onto her chest, more out of anger and hopelessness than any determined life-saving effort. He pinched her nose again and again pressed his lips to hers, breathing lungfulls of air into her. Suddenly she coughed. He leaned back, eyes wide. She coughed again and again as he helped her sit up. Her eyes were bloodshot and blood had dried under her nose and down her cheeks like thick red tears.

"Sheesh, don't scare me like that," Dante muttered, relieved. Good help was so hard to find these days ...

"The Legendary Son of Sparda, scared of a girl?" Lady murmured, raising a hand and pressing it to the side of her head, wincing. "I'm telling you, I'm really starting to wish I'd stayed at the office and sent Trish instead. It would have been so much safer."

"Why didn't you?" Dante asked with a smirk, his heart still thumping like a train in his chest.

Lady opened one eye and fixed him with a baleful look. "That coin of yours. Someone could have told me it was double headed ..."

Dante let out a barking laugh and glanced up. He froze, taken aback. "What?" asked Lady, turning to see what had surprised him.

"The Oracle, we found it ... finally."

* * *

A/N: Haha! You know, I'm pretty sure I only wrote this bit in to make all the yaoi fangirls scream in protest at having Dante lock lips with Lady. Then again, these days I'm not so opposed to yaoi, and I'm more of a yuri fan as well, so I probably wouldn't have written it this way if I did this fic now. Very short chapter anyway, not much to add.


	8. Chapter 8

******DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART VIII

* * *

"Amazing ..." Lady murmured as Dante helped her get to her feet. The Oracle was just like any other Time Statue - a golden lion headed figure bearing aloft a giant hourglass filled with glittering sand. _This _one however had to be at least twenty or thirty feet high, and sat at the top of a huge flight of steps.

"Its kind of like Deep Thought," Lady remarked as they approached it.

"Huh?"

Still wincing from the pain in her head, Lady stopped and turned to Dante. "You know? Deep Thought? The huge thinking computer?"

Dante shrugged and shook his head.

"From Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? The film? You _do_ know what films are, right Dante?"

"Yeah, but you know me, I'm not really one for sitting around on my ass all day watching DVD's."

Lady frowned, a smirk slowly spreading across her face. "Dante, that's all you ever do when you're not on a job."

"Whatever," Dante said, sticking the palm of his hand in front of her face in the classic 'Talk to the hand' gesture. Lady batted it away.

"You know, I've been working with you all these years, and I still hardly know anything about you. I mean, for example, what's your favourite colour?"

Dante let out a laugh and brushed the sleeve of his red jacket.

"Okay, films then? What's you're favourite movie?"

"Look Lady, we don't have time for this-"

"Oh? We haven't had any demons show up in six months, and we're in the Temple of _Ages_. One thing we do have is time. So come on!"

Dante turned back to her and fixed her with an annoyed eye. "Well what's yours?"

"I asked first," she smirked, "Don't tell me - Reservoir Dogs or Snatch - something with over the top violence. Am I right?"

Dante scoffed and shook his head. "No way! There's only one film that comes top of my charts - Shaft of course."

"Shaft? Typical guy film ... figures," she muttered, shaking her head sadly. So much for finding 'hidden depths' in her devil fighting partner.

"Oh come on!" he growled, "_Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? SHAFT! Ya damn right!_" he sung, spinning away from her and starting his dance routine, "_They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother - SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft. THEN WE CAN DIG IT!_"

Lady grimaced and buried her face in her hands. "Okay Dante, forget I asked."

Together they ascended the steps leading to the Oracle, the light reflecting off its golden surface creating a soft, warm aura around it. When they finally stood before it, Lady craned her neck up at it whilst Dante stood humming to himself, tapping his foot on the black marble floor.

"Dante, do you realise what an opportunity this is?" Lady asked, mopping some of the dried blood from her face with a scrap of cloth. Dante stopped humming and glanced at her.

"Well yeah, it means we can finally figure out what all the demons are up to."

"No! I mean, yes, we can do that. But don't you realise - this is the Oracle of the Time God! It knows _everything_! It could hold the answer to life's greatest mysteries! The meaning of life, who created us, what its all about-"

"How to fix my jukebox?"

Lady shot him a scathing look. "I'm serious. This is a once in a lifetime chance. Isn't there anything you always wanted to know? Like ..." she stopped, searching around for some idea, "Like your father! It could tell you all about him; what he was like, how he died."

Dante crossed his arms thoughtfully, staring up at the giant statue, glittering particles of sand sifting gently through the vast time-glass on its shoulders. "Anything?" he said at last, "Anything at all?" Lady nodded. "Okay then ..." he unfolded his arms, took a step forwards and cupped his hands, "Hey! You! Oracle! ... you got the time?"

There was a long silence. Lady gawped, open mouthed at him. He turned and shrugged at her. "What? I didn't bring my watch."

Lady shook her head and finished cleaning her face, while Dante strolled up to the statue and gave it a kick. Suddenly the whole hall filled with music. It was a soothing chant that seemed to be sung by thousands of people, washing over the pair in a gentle susurrus. As they stared at each other they heard words enter their minds without first seeming to pass through their ears.

_I am the Oracle of Time. You have come seeking the knowledge of the ages. You wish to know why the Underworld has been dormant._

"Good guess," Dante mumbled, staring at the thing sceptically. Beside him, Lady shushed him and watched, amazed, as bright images flared into life above them, showing an army of demons. And floating malevolently above them all - three red circles.

"Mundus ..." Dante breathed. All trace of playfulness had left him now. His gloved hands tightened into fists beside him and he glowered at the images as the Oracle once again spoke into their minds.

_The Dark Emperor Mundus has been gathering the denizens of the Underworld together. He seeks to retake the Earth once more. Though weakened, his power shattered by his defeat and banishment on Mallet Island, he still retained control of a powerful servant._

The images shimmered, as if they were being projected onto flowing water. The demon army vanished, replaced by a towering dark knight. Lady didn't recognise the armoured figure, but Dante clearly did. "Vergil ..." he growled deeply, fists clenching tighter.

_Twice Mundus has faced the power of Sparda, and twice it has vanquished him. Now he seeks to re-enter the world of men through the body of Sparda. He has sent forth his servant Nelo, to reclaim the Sparda sword and take it to Sparda's Tomb._

Dante and Lady shot each other an alarmed look. "Crap!" Dante swore.

"Trish!" Lady added. She was still at the office - alone. And ever since Mallet Island she had guarded the Sparda sword ...

_Nelo has slain the one who protected the sword and has journeyed to the island of Vie de Mari, to seek the location of Sparda's Tomb. When he has it, he will journey there and use the sword to resurrect his long dead father, whereupon Mundus shall enter this world through Sparda's body. With the body of Sparda as his host, he will then be able to control Sparda's power. He will retake his throne in the Underworld before launching his invasion of Earth._

The news hit them like a tidal wave. Lady sank to her knees and Dante stood rooted to the spot, frozen in shock. This couldn't be happening! Right under their noses ...

The images above them shimmered again, showing the Earth covered in darkness. Three red slits appeared over the image ... the eyes of the Devil himself.

"No," Lady moaned, her voice coming out almost as a squeak. The image above them flickered and vanished into nothingness, and behind them a white light sprang forth from the ground.

_This portal shall transport you to Vie de Mari. If Nelo and Mundus are not stopped, the world shall forever be plunged into chaos._

Radiating waves of palpable fury, his face grim and set, Dante yanked Lady up and pulled her towards the light. The next thing she knew the temple was fading away as the light swallowed them both.

* * *

A/N: The plot exposition chapter! Yeah, for some reason I really liked those time statues/shops that were in the games. I think it was the mention of the Watcher/Time God - I was obsessed with time back when I wrote this (still am) so I jumped at the chance to use what was really a minor gameplay blurb. It becomes even more blatant in the sequel fic I wrote, Full Circle, which had actual time travel and time priests in it.


	9. Chapter 9

******DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART IX

* * *

The light faded and they found themselves standing upon an incline overlooking the ocean, which churned violently against the rocks below them. As Lady looked down, she lost her balance and started to fall forward, until a strong hand gripped the back of her jacket and pulled her away from the edge.

"Thanks," she said, but Dante was already gone, running up the incline in the direction of a thick black plume of smoke. Lady pulled one of her handguns, cocked it and ran after him. She drew up level with Dante, who glared down at the smouldering remains of a burning cottage. Glancing over at him, she saw that he was somehow different. A dark shadow had fallen across his face. She turned her attention back to the sight below.

"Dante look! Someone's alive down there!" Lady jabbed a finger towards the burnt out doorframe, where a soot covered woman with red hair staggered through, coughing heavily. Before Lady had even finished speaking, Dante was already off and running, his twin handguns drawn. He slid to a stop and Lucia looked up in bewilderment at him.

"I don't ... Dante? But ... how?" she coughed and spluttered from the thick coils of smoke pouring from the ruined building.

"Where?" was all he said. Lucia staggered away and pointed back inside. Without hesitating, he dived headlong through an open window and rolled to his feet, guns at the ready.

The place had been trashed. The furniture was overturned and anything flammable was on fire. Of Vergil there was no sign. He heard a thump from an adjacent room though. Dante crossed the scorched floorboards swiftly but silently, Ivory down at his side but Ebony aimed ahead, ready to fire. He came to the door, listened, then kicked it open and dashed in, ducking low as if to avoid a sword blow aimed at head height.

None came however. On the floor, amidst the burning debris that had fallen in from the roof, was Matier. She had a bullet hole in the dead centre of her face. Dante frowned. Vergil didn't use guns, they weren't his style. He spun as he heard the noise of metal scraping on wood, and turned to see -

"Lucia!" he gasped, shocked. The red-haired demon fighter was trying to drag herself towards him, whilst pulling one of her curved swords across the burning floorboards. Blood drenched her mid-riff and caked her lips. Dante holstered his pistols and hurried over to her. She snarled and made to slash at him, but the attempt was feeble. "Cut it out! What the hell are you doing?"

"Y-you! You ... d-did this!" she spluttered, trying again to find the strength to lift her weapon. Dante was at a loss. What was she talking about? Vergil had done this, and twins they might be but surely she could tell the difference between them?

"I didn't do this, I swear. I only just got here-" his words were drowned out by a deafening crash as half the roof, completely ablaze, caved in. Dante staggered back as the flames washed over him. Everything became a blurred mess. When his vision cleared, he couldn't see Lucia anymore, buried under all that burning wood. He didn't need to, to know she was dead.

First Trish, and now Lucia ... that just left-

"Lady!" He slapped his forehead, unable to believe he hadn't realised sooner - If Lucia had just died in front of him, then the one who had just staggered out ... "Wasn't Lucia." In a flash Ebony & Ivory were out again, and an instant later he left the raging inferno via the nearest window.

"Gah! Dante! Help!" Lady cried out. Dante was on his feet, pistols zeroing in past her head and in on the fake visage of Lucia, who held the struggling Lady in an iron grip.

"Drop the act Vergil, I know its you!" Dante growled, cocking back the hammers of his pistols. The fake Lucia's lips contracted into a sneer of distaste.

"My name," she started to say, before she began to glow with a radiant blue light. The image of Lucia faded away, replaced by that of his brother Vergil, with eyes that flared with brilliant blue fire. Dante knew this little parlour trick all too well. He had seen it before when a mirror image had confronted him not so long ago on Mallet Island – a mirage that gave Vergil the exact same appearance as Dante.

_"Is Nelo," _he finished, his voice leaving eerie after echoes. Lady squirmed in his grasp, but stopped as he raised a handgun to the side of her head. Dante could see the name engraved on the side of the weapon even from here. In a sick twist of irony, it was Luce, one of his father's custom handguns.

Now it was Nelo's turn to pull the hammer back of his weapon. "Drop your guns or I'll shoot her ..." he declared.

"Don't do it Dante!" Lady yelled through clenched teeth. She winced as Nelo ground the barrel of Luce into the side of her head.

"Do it ... now."

* * *

A/N: Aaaand Lucia bites the dust. I really do regret killing off her and Trish, and I'm still not sure why I did it. I didn't hate either of them, but they weren't my favourites either. I guess I did it for shock value, to add weight to the story and make it seem serious. I'm also quite ashamed, reading it now, to see Lady subdued so easily. If I wrote this now, she would at he very least try and kick her captor in the crotch or something. Struggling in his grasp and calling out for help just isn't her style, and it's also the kind of thing I hate. I can get Vergil gaining the upper hand against her because ... he's Vergil, and she's only human. I'd still expect her to struggle a lot more though. Also, I clearly regreted killing Lucia even back when I wrote this, because not long after I went and wrote Rebirth, a fic where she is brought back to life as part of a plot by the villain of my Full Circle fic. Sadly that never got resolved, because I never finished Full Circle, and I can't recall what, if anything, I had planned in that regards.


	10. Chapter 10

******DMC: End of the Line SE**

PART X

* * *

"Drop them!" Nelo demanded. Dante spat.

"Hell no."

"I _will_ kill her!" he threatened. Dante merely shrugged, a look of complete indifference showing on his face.

"Go ahead."

Nelo started to say something but then paused, confused. Even Lady looked surprised. "What?" she gasped.

Dante laughed. "Well lets not screw around here, we both know I drop these guns and you'll pop her anyway, and I'll be next. On the other hand I keep hold of these, then when you're busy putting a cap in her I'll be riddling your face with bullets," he explained matter of factly.

"That wont kill me, and she will still be dead." Nelo argued. Still, Dante looked supremely unconcerned, much to Lady's mounting surprise and annoyance.

"And? So? Your point?"

"Dante!" Lady snapped, glaring dangerously at him, "I'm your partner! Hell, I'm your friend! You're just going to let him shoot me?"

"We all gotta go some time Lady. Besides, you did shoot _me_ in the head, remember? Now's your chance to find out what it feels like."

"But I'll die!"

"Well then, lesson learned," he smirked.

"You bastard!" she snarled, narrowing her eyes at him.

"You're bluffing," said Nelo. Dante released a short laugh.

"Oh I'm really not," he assured him, "But by all means go ahead and try me - I think I'll start by hollowing out those Disco eyes of yours - see how well you can fight when you're blind."

Several seconds passed in tense silence. Finally Nelo lowered Luce from Lady's temple and shoved her towards Dante. He ignored her, keeping his twin handguns trained on Nelo as she stumbled to a halt beside him, then, shooting him a severely nasty look, drew her own weapons and turned to her former captor.

Nelo had drawn Ombra now as well, and twirled the two pistols experimentally in his gloved hands. He was less like the dark knight Dante had confronted on Mallet, but he was also older and more twisted than the human brother he had confronted years before. He dressed in a rich mixture of black and dark green, and the Yamato sword hung from a sash around the waist of his long green overcoat.

"Its been a while," Nelo said in a level tone, pacing in front of the pair of Devil hunters who kept their weapons trained on his every movement.

"And you've been busy," Dante spat. "First Trish, now Lucia and Matier."

"I wont allow anyone to stand in the way of my masters plan," Nelo warned.

"So you found it really necessary to put a bullet in Matier's face? At point blank range? You've changed. I remember when you were a man of honour."

Now it was Nelo's turn to shrug. "I let my pride hold me back. Honour is a weakness that cost me every battle I had with you. The strong learn from the means employed to defeat them," he indicated the guns Luce & Ombra, "And they become stronger for it. And who would have thought that the old witch would not only be guarding the Tombs location, but the very key to unlock it?"

"So you need Sparda's weapons to unlock his Tomb?" Lady asked, not really expecting an answer and not needing one. She had read as much when she was just a girl ... stories that she had believed were just that - stories.

Nelo fixed her with his strange glowing eyes. Suddenly he was standing right in front of her, the barrel of Luce aimed right between her eyes. It was knocked upwards as the barrel of Ivory shot across and struck it from below, the gunshot ringing harmlessly over her head. Nelo responded by jabbing Ombra at Dante's chest and firing, just as the devil hunter twirled to one side to avoid it, anticipating the attack.

Both Dante and Lady simultaneously raised their pistols and fired at Nelo, who ducked and lashed out with a sweeping kick. Lady was sent sprawling, whilst Dante bounced up the instant he hit the ground. Nelo was on him in a heartbeat, thrusting his pistols at him in a furious blur of movement as Dante countered, twisting the weapons aside and narrowly dodging the point blank shots.

Still on the ground, Lady raised her pistol and fired it at the back of Nelo's head. Through some instinct he pulled his head to the left, causing her shot to whistle past his ear. It struck Dante in the cheek, knocking him off balance. Nelo smacked Dante across the head with the barrel of Ombra, then spun and fired a snap shot at Lady, the bullet ricocheting off her pistol and knocking it from her grasp.

Gritting her teeth, Lady somersaulted backwards from the ground, landing on her feet and drawing her Scorpion and a fresh pistol in the same instant. She charged at Nelo, firing wildly. He twisted and jerked, somehow avoiding her shots. When she was close enough his arms and left foot shot out, pivoting her body and throwing her in a hip toss into Dante, sending the pair sprawling into the dirt.

Lying in a tangled heap on the ground, groaning in pain, the pair stared up, wincing at the silhouette of Nelo Angelo as the sun shone in the distance behind him. His two fiery blue eyes burned like cold stars, regarding the pair with contempt as he slowly holstered his pistols. Dante and Lady both raised their guns and fired, just as their foe exploded into a ball of fire, which shot up into the sky and disappeared over the horizon.

Grumbling profusely, they untangled and picked themselves up, Dante holstering Ebony & Ivory whilst Lady reloaded, anger lining her face.

"What now? He'll be at Sparda's Tomb in no time and we don't even know where that is," Lady said.

"Not true," said Dante, spitting her bullet out of his mouth and rubbing his wounded but healing cheek, "Its here, on this island. Lucia told me a while back that her clan buried my father here, and they've been guarding his tomb ever since." He stopped, a sad look passing over his features as he thought of Lucia. Dead ... he blinked and shook his head. No time.

Dante sighed and strode off, picking up speed as he went. Frowning, Lady holstered her guns and hurried after him. He led them to a worn out shed a short distance away from the burning rubble of the cottage. Lady watched as he went in, clattering sounds coming from within as he rummaged around.

"What are you looking for?" she called out.

"This!" he exclaimed, wheeling out the familiar sight of a gleaming motorcycle. "I gave this to Lucia after our last job together. She's kept it in good condition." He tossed the keys into the air and caught them deftly, grinning at her.

Scowling, Lady strolled down to the shed and walked up to him. She stopped and slammed her bunched up fist into his face, sending him reeling back.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?"

Lady snatched the keys out of the air as he let go of them. "For standing by and offering to let Nelo shoot me in the head. If you ever do something like that again, I'll put a grenade between your legs and pull the pin."

Dante winced more from this threat than from her punch, as she straddled the motorcycle and jammed the keys into the ignition. "Oh, and I'm driving," she added, gunning the engine.

* * *

A/N: Nice little three way gun-kata fight scene here. As I said before, I doubt I'd be able to write a very good DMC fight scene these days because my personality and interests have changed so much. I sort of changed Vergil's signature colour here to dark green as well, as a call back to the green armour he wore as Nelo Angelo in the first DMC game. It occurs to me now that the events and backstory for DMC4 kinda shoot this fic out of the water, as the Order of the Sword based a lot of their research off of Nelo Angelo's corpse. Capcom really wanted to make it clear that Vergil was dead and was never going to come back. To this day I'll never understand their reasoning for that - Vergil is perhaps the second most popular character next to Dante himself, yet because (I think) one of the developers personally didn't like Vergil they decided to kill him off in favour of ... Nero? Like I said, I have no idea what they were thinking with that. Or what they're thinking now with the current game in development. I honestly believe that I or any of a hundred DMC fans could write a better script for a DMC game than the things Capcom are actually using.


	11. Chapter 11

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XI_

They drove to an isolated and heavily wooded area on the south side of the island. As the track they were following reached an end, they were forced to get off and proceed on foot, however they didn't have far to go. Covered in writhing ivy and vegetation, aged, crumbling stone steps led them down a steep valley. In the distance, Lady could hear the roar of a waterfall.

They at last reached an area that was so thick with plant life and tree's that Dante was forced to hack them away with his Rebellion sword. Lady glanced warily around, searching for any signs of Nelo. She half expected to see him sitting in a treetop or on a branch - ready to swoop down and attack. But of the dark knight there was no sign. 

"Damn bugs!" Dante growled, beating his hands about in an effort to swat the teeming insect life that buzzed around them. Lady ignored him and strode past, staring at something.  
"This must be it." she said. Dante peered over her shoulder and nodded. 

The tangle of tree's and vines partially concealed a low stone wall decorated with bizarre carvings. Directly ahead was a narrow opening that descended into darkness. From the looks of things it had once been blocked by a sliding section of wall, but either side of the opening were indentations.

"Luce & Ombra ... Sparda's weapons. And here, a groove for his sword." Lady gestured to a carved recess above the opening that bore a remarkable resemblance to the strange demonic Sparda sword.

Dante reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow. The humidity was killing him, and the pair were still wearing their cold weather gear from their hike through Tibet. Practically panting from the heat, Dante peeled his gloves off, tossing them aside along with his thick red jacket. He rolled up the sleeves of his black sweatshirt and buckled his sword/gun belt around his chest. Lady removed her own fur-lined jacket and dropped it in a heap on the ground along with her gloves.

"Its very ... low profile." Lady observed, checking through her guns to make sure they were loaded and working. Dante shrugged, checking that his Devil Arms were secure.  
"Lets do this." he said, standing before the narrow opening that was like the yawning mouth of some slumbering beast. Lady came up alongside him, holstering a pistol and nodding.

They descended into the Tomb, the darkness quickly giving way to the faint glow of Luminite rocks that had been set into the walls and ceiling of the underground structure. They proceeded with caution, but it wasn't long before they stumbled across their first trap.

The problem was it had already been triggered.

"That's not a good sign." Lady murmured, staring at the bent and twisted metal spikes jutting from the floor and ceiling. From the looks of things someone had driven a tank through them.  
"Nelo." Dante murmured. They carefully stepped through the gap in the spikes that had been twisted open by the previous passage of Angelo.

As they continued deeper into the tomb, they saw similar sights - Traps that had already been triggered by someone else; A boulder that had been smashed to rubble; light traps that had been shattered; bladed door traps in which the entire door had been torn from the frame. With each trap they passed, the stronger the feeling of unease that grew inside of them.

After about ten minutes of this Dante steered them down an alternate path that led them to a spiral staircase, which wound deeper down into the Tomb. It ended in a short stretch of corridor, the left side of which consisted of fluted archways. These opened into a cavernous hall filled with stone pillars. And at the centre of the chamber - a stepped pyramid, atop of which lay a sarcophagus. The carved figure on the heavy stone lid was unmistakably made in the likeness of the demon Sparda.

"Dante-" Lady started to say. She was interrupted as his hand clamped down over her mouth. He turned to her and placed his index finger against his lips, instructing her to be quiet.

Resting in the hands of the carved Sparda was the actual Sparda sword itself. The weapon that Vergil - no, Nelo - had taken from Trish and placed here. They also noticed a circle of glowing golden orbs placed at set intervals on the ground around the sarcophagus, each one pulsing and throbbing from some inner light.

"He's here ..." Dante breathed, his words scarcely more than a whisper.   
"Dante, if the ceremony has already started," Lady whispered, dropping into a crouch beside him. "We have to stop it before he revives Sparda, otherwise Mundus will-"  
"I know." he said, cutting her off. "Wait here."

He somersaulted forwards, through the archway, falling and twisting to land lightly on his feet. Lady gaped down at him in a mixture of surprise and annoyance. It was at least a thirty, forty foot drop and she couldn't make it without his help. She let out a frustrated sigh as he darted off, quickly halting and pressing his back against one of the many pillars.  
"Fine, I'll just wait here then shall I?" She mumbled.

She reached around to pull the Kalina-Ann towards her, when suddenly she felt the cold metal of a sword blade lightly rest upon her shoulder ...


	12. Chapter 12

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XII_

Dante darted from pillar to pillar, Ebony & Ivory ready to double tap Nelo in the head the instant he showed his face. He worked his way across the cavern towards the pyramid, which was bathed in an aura of golden light cast by the circle of orbs.

Funny, really. All these years and he wanted nothing more than to have his father alive again. Mainly so he could kick his ass for leaving such a freaking mess behind that he, Dante, was always having to clean up. And now here he was, trying to stop his own brother from resurrecting their father. If it weren't for the threat of Mundus he'd be inclined to just let him.

The chamber was a spectacle. The high ceiling was like something out of a crazy cathedral, a mixture of gothic stonework and demonic gargoyles. The ground was decorated in glossy tiles that depicted various battles Sparda had fought in, and the many enemies he had slain. The whole place was lit by a shimmering mix of coloured Luminite that had been ground into the very stones used to construct the Tomb, giving the place a strange, otherworldly feel.

It suddenly became very cold as he approached the base of the pyramid, his breath misting in the air in front of him. He reached out with his right foot to take the first step, when a blood-curdling scream sounded from back the way he had come. He spun and saw the distant shape of someone falling thirty feet and landing with an eye watering Crunch.

"Lady! Crap!" Dante made to dash back, when a sound above him drew his attention. Snapping a look up, he saw to his astonishment that Nelo was clutching one of the stone pillars high above him, using what was unmistakably the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves to dig into the stonework. Instinctively, Dante raised his twin pistols and opened fire, just as Nelo sprang and leapt onto a pillar opposite. Bullets tore up clouds of stone and mortar dust where a mere instant before Nelo had been.

As Dante readjusted his aim, Nelo kicked off from the pillar and leapt down towards him, clawed gauntlets extended, ready to ram him into a pulp. His reflexes kicked in and he dropped into a roll, coming up with his sword drawn and swinging as he felt Nelo slam into the ground were he had just stood, tearing up tiles and sending chips and dust flying in all directions. The Rebellion swung in a vicious arc, but was met with an ear splitting Clang! as Nelo blocked the strike with his left gauntlet. As Dante's sword trembled in his grasp from the impact, his opponent let fly with a right hook, connecting with Dante's jaw and hurling him back through the air.

He turned this flight into a somersault, landing a dozen feet away, just as the dark knight sent a crackling blue fireball off in his direction. The Rebellion came up and around, swiping the fiery projectile away. It slammed into the base of a nearby pillar, exploding in a shower of flames and mortar. The ground beneath them shook as the entire thing came crashing down like a levelled tree. The falling pillar connected with another, which also shook and started to fall. Soon a domino effect had begun and the entire chamber began shaking apart around them.

The two warriors fought on regardless. Dante leapt over a cracked and falling pillar, Ebony & Ivory spitting bullets at his agile foe. Nelo, leaping through the dust clouds towards Dante, deflected the bullets in a frenzied series of movements with the Beowulf gloves. As they neared each other mid-air, he let loose a roundhouse at Dante's head. The cunning Devil Hunter however air-hiked up above him, swiftly drew his sword and slashed downward with a perfectly timed helm breaker.

Nelo tried to twist out of the way at the last second, the Rebellion scoring a deep gouge down his back. He rolled up onto his feet as he hit the ground, drawing the Yamato in one impossibly fast movement as he did so. As Dante landed several feet away, he found the razor sharp blade flying towards his face. He leaned far back, the deadly slash whistling just over his nose. As he straightened up, he brought the Rebellion sword up in an overhead cut. Nelo blocked and countered with an upper slash, taking Dante's sword out of his grasp and sending it spinning into the air.

Dante jumped up and to his right, kicking off a broken pillar that was propped up against another. He launched himself into the air, hand outstretched to grab his sword just as Nelo leapt up to meet him with an aerial rave.

Their blades met in mid-air, the force of the connection sending them both spinning away. They landed a dozen or so feet apart, ready to continue the fight, when suddenly a fiery shockwave washed over them both. Turning, Dante saw to his horror a column of flames pouring out from Sparda's sarcophagus.

Mundus had risen again.

The combination of the shockwave and the collapsing pillars caused at that moment the entire Tomb to shake apart, caving in around them. Neither of them had known that the waterfall above ground had fed into an underground lake. They soon learned quickly enough as a tidal wave swept through the collapsing chamber, slamming into the two devil warriors and washing them away amidst a torrent of broken stone, tiles and icy water ...


	13. Chapter 13

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XIII_

Dante slammed painfully into the side of the tunnel wall as the sudden flash flood drove him through the fast-collapsing underground. He twisted, narrowly avoiding a sharp row of rocks as the flow swept him onwards.

"This is no good." He protested to no one in particular, his voice snatched away by the roar all around him. Glancing around, he spotted a broken section of tiling that was reasonably intact, being washed out nearby. As he approached a corner, he tensed and kicked off from it, knocking up a fine mist of spray as his hands shot out, grasped the square of tile and flipped himself up onto it.

It took a few seconds to fight for control, the rapids of the flood behind him bucking and heaving him - yet he maintained his footing and was soon shooting down the shaking tunnel smoothly, riding the tile like a surfboard.

"WOO! WOOHOO!" He hollered, unable to help himself as his speed increased and the tunnel narrowed. He ducked, avoiding an overhang, then shifted his feet to swerve the tile around a row of stalagmites. Dark ridges of jagged, slick rock and stone shot past him in a blur of speed as he rode the front of the wave, eyes wide with excitement. 

The tunnels reached an intersection - one leading over an underground waterfall and the other angling up a tiny and narrow funnel. Dante steered towards this, and found himself accelerating still faster as the water pressure behind him increased - compressed into such a narrow space.

"YEEHA!" he screamed, spinning around and around the narrow funnel, which twisted up, around, down and back up again like some crazy straw. Suddenly, he shot out into fresh air, expelled from the tunnel like a bullet from the barrel of a gun.

Dante, his vanity getting the better of him once again, struck a pose as he sailed high into the warm, sunlit air, droplets of water cascading off his soaking clothes and weapons. Time slowed to a crawl as he glanced down at the ground - at least a dozen feet below - and saw a pool rapidly forming at the foot of the hillside he had just emerged from. Water continued to spurt out from numerous cracks and holes, creating a series of jet fountains.

And staggering unsteadily through it all - Nelo.

Dante narrowed his eyes, drew Ivory from its holster and kicked off the slick tile that had served as his impromptu surfboard. He dived down, warm air whipping at his dripping hair, and landed square on Nelo's back, bearing him to the ground and driving the barrel of Ivory into the base of his skull in the same instant.

"OOF!" Nelo cried out, the air blasted from him as he was forced down. Dante reached down with his free hand and grabbed the back of his former brothers sopping wet hair, yanking it back fiercely and - he hoped - painfully.

"Well lookee what we have here." Dante sneered, pressing Ivory harder into the base of his skull. "Just the kind of catch I was fishing for. With how much you weigh, man, that's gotta be a record." 

"GET - OFF." Nelo growled through clenched teeth. Dante frowned, noting that his voice was no longer the eerie echo he had heard before when Nelo had spoken. He yanked his head further back and leaned down, staring upside down at his face.

Nelo's eyes were no longer glowing. They were the normal blue eyes of his brother - the eyes he hadn't seen since years before, as Dante had watched Vergil fall over a waterfall following their last confrontation. Not sure what to make of this, he threw Nelo's head forward, stood up, kicked him around onto his back and towered menacingly above him, Ivory level with his nose.

"Well well," Dante said, "Long time no see bro." He let out a hollow laugh. "What's the matter? Your old boss not need you anymore? Got handed the pink slip?"

Vergil glared up at him through the bright sunlight, glinting across the continued spray of water still pouring out of the hillside, creating a miniature rainbow of colour around Dante. He said nothing, still trying to get his bearings. His mind was finally free of that invasive presence ... that dark shadow that had clouded his thoughts for ... so many years now. He blinked and shook his head, trying to dislodge some of the water that was dripping down his face and the back of his neck.

"Uuuughhh." 

They both heard it, a low groan, some distance away to their left. Dante glanced across, then back down at Vergil, who still squinted up at him.  
"Stay there like a good little dog." he instructed, cocking the hammer of Ivory back to grab his attention. "Otherwise I'll have to put you down."

He found Lady, lying in a clump of bushes not far away from where he had found Vergil. She was trying to sit up, without much success, and looked vaguely reminiscent of a drowned rat, her brown hair plastered to her cheeks and her clothes hanging like wet paper.

"Rough day at work?" Dante asked her amiably, leaning down and giving her hand up. He had to steady her as she stood, almost toppling back over.  
"You could say." She mumbled quietly, gripping a particularly nasty lump on the back of her head. "I need a vacation."  
"You gonna be all right?" he asked, squinting into her bloodshot eyes and dark grimace.  
"Hell, no." She said. "I think I'll ... I'll just go and sit down here for a while." She dropped down onto her knees and set about ringing some of the water out of her sodden clothes.

Dante smirked and strode back to his brother, who had staggered to his feet. Dante smacked him square on the jaw, sending him reeling back. Vergil steadied himself, then kicked out at Dante's ankle, causing him to buckle. He then drove the palm of his hand into Dante's face, and were it not for his demonic heritage he would surely have a broken nose.

"OUCH! Son of a bitch!" he snapped, driving his elbow into Vergil's gut. Vergil took the hit, reached across and twisted the hand Dante held Ivory in, forcing him to drop it. He then smacked Dante across the head with the barrel of the weapon and took a step back, aiming it at his face.

"That makes two of us." he said, as Dante spun and whipped out Ebony, also raising it level with his brothers face.

Several long tense seconds followed, as neither of them moved or even so much as twitched. Finally Dante let out a humourless laugh.  
"Always a pleasure to see you, bro."  
"Likewise." Vergil muttered.

More silence. Then;  
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now." Dante snarled.  
"Why should I?" Vergil responded. "It'd be so much easier if I just wasted you, here and now."  
"Well, you've had - what? Six tries to do that so far? Not a very impressive track record."  
"You know what they say – 'If at first you don't succeed …'"

"'Shoot the two idiots who are wasting your time.'" Lady finished for him, aiming her Scorpion at Vergil with her right hand and holding a live grenade in her left.

They both turned and stared at her as she glowered at them like someone who had just escaped from the madhouse.  
"In case you testosterone junkies hadn't noticed, Mundus is free and in the body of Sparda. He has Sparda's sword and his power, and our chances of stopping him _even if_ we work together are somewhere between slim and none." She holstered her Scorpion (But kept the grenade primed) and grabbed Ivory from Vergil's protesting grasp. She then stood between them and gave the weapon to Dante, glaring dangerously at him in a way that suggested any sudden moves would result in him swiftly joining the ranks of the Eunuchs.

"Now," she went on "With that in mind why don't you guys stop butting your oversized heads together and start thinking of how we are going to stop an all out invasion from Hell."

Dante took Ivory, reluctantly holstered his pistols, then turned and stalked away. Lady sighed as she saw Vergil do the same.  
"Boys." She muttered under her breath at their retreating backs. "Can't live with them ... cant think why you'd want to."


	14. Chapter 14

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XIV_

In the end, with time being of the serious essence, Vergil teleported the trio back to civilisation. They each went their separate ways, agreeing to meet up at the Devil Never Cry Office in a few hours time. Despite the impending threat of Hell on Earth, they each had a number of mundane things to take care of, such as getting a shower and a change of dry clothes, not to mention something to eat. After all, even the greatest of demon hunters need fuel for their fire.

When Lady - suitably changed and satiated - strolled into the office, it was to find Dante and Vergil, predictably at each other's throats.  
"They're mine! You stole them!" Dante insisted, shaking an angry fist at his perturbed brother.  
"Correction, _you_ stole them from _me_!" He jabbed a thumb at himself. "I earned them by slaying that demon."  
"And then you carelessly dropped them!"

Lady rolled her eyes and approached the pair. "What is it now?" she asked, exasperated. Vergil and Dante both turned to glare at her in perfect unison, as if there was only one of them standing before a mirror.  
"Stay out of this!" they both snapped simultaneously. Lady threw up her hands and backed off. She noticed then the silvery gauntlets and greaves resting atop of Dante's snooker table. The Beowulf … that's what they were arguing over? She rubbed her jaw thoughtfully for a minute, then strode purposely past the twins as they resumed their dispute.

"You know what they say bro – finders keepers." Said Dante. Vergil crossed his arms and sneered disdainfully.  
"And do you know what they call people like you? Thief!"  
"Ok, fine, you want them?" He asked. Vergil shot him a look that clearly said 'Well Duh!', since he was never the kind of person to actually _speak_ such words. "All right then, we settle this the way we used to – arm wrestle, best outta three! Agreed?"  
"Fine." Vergil muttered.

The pair leaned over and placed the elbow of their right arms on the glazed wooden lip of the snooker table, then clasped their right hands. "On three." Said Dante. "One -" He immediately started to push on the count of one, as did Vergil. They strained, gritting their teeth, muscles bulging from the effort.

Suddenly, Dante found the blade of a red scimitar rest against the back of his neck. Likewise, Vergil found the blade of a blue sword resting against the back of _his_ neck. They stopped straining and turned to stare up at Lady. She stood before them wielding Agni and Rudra, wearing a look of someone who is fully prepared to cause some mischief and quite possibly some mayhem as well.

"If you boys want to play with each other, do it _after_ we save the world. 'K?" she said, grinning like a shark that had just snuck up on a pair of squabbling fish. The brothers shot each other a look, which said quite clearly, 'You got lucky, pal – if she hadn't stopped me …'

Lady twirled the twin swords, sheathed them across her back, then picked up the Beowulf. She handed these to Vergil, a flicker of a smile crossing his features as she did.  
"Hey!" Dante protested. Lady immediately turned and thrust out another pair of gauntlets – the Ifrit.  
"Here," she said. "You leave these to gather dust, you might as well use them again."  
"Now we're even." Vergil said, trying not to smirk. Dante gave him a withering look through narrowed eyes.  
"You just watch yourself. We're not done." He warned, jabbing a pointed finger at his now unperturbed twin.

Lady sighed and rolled her eyes again. Would these two ever grow up? "Getting on to business." She said, clearing her throat. "We need to find Mundus."  
"He will surely try to open a doorway to the demon world now that his power has been restored." Said Vergil smoothly. "However with Mallet Island and Temen-ni-gru both destroyed …"  
"And Arius' tower." Dante added. Vergil looked puzzled.  
"Arius?"  
"Long story." Dante paused, then shook his head. "Actually, it's a very short story, just not a very good one."  
"Either way," Vergil continued. "We need to find another place that serves as a doorway to the Underworld."  
"Already found one." Said Lady, looking extremely smug. They turned and stared at her, evidently surprised. "What?" she said. "I'm not just a pretty face you know."

Dante opened his mouth to reply, saw her expression and thought better of it. "Where?" he settled for instead.  
"In ancient times it was said that there was a portal to the Underworld in a place called Avernus. It's a heavily volcanic region in the west of Italy. I did some reading … in certain texts it is said that there is a fortress spanning a lake of molten lava, which exists halfway between this world and the demon world. Only those with blessed sight could see it, which is why no-one knows its there."

"What about a person who is halfway between the demon and human world? Like a hybrid?" Vergil asked. Lady nodded and smiled.  
"I'd say it's a safe bet that the two of you will be able to see it just fine. I think I can find the ritual needed to 'bless' my sight as well. That's the easy part though."

"We still need to find a way to defeat Mundus." Vergil said.  
Dante shrugged. "What's the big deal? I've beaten him before."  
"Yes, but from what I heard you had our fathers sword and his power to do it. He now has both."  
"Well its not like we haven't faced that problem before."  
"Arkham did not have Sparda blood – he could not control the power." Vergil reminded him.  
"But now Mundus inhabits Sparda's revived body, he _has_ Sparda blood flowing through him." Lady added.

Vergil nodded and turned back to Dante, raising a critical eyebrow at his brothers 'Devil May Care' attitude. "To my knowledge, no-one ever defeated our father in combat. His power is unequalled among the demon world insofar as I am aware. And combined with the power of Mundus …"  
"Ok, I get the picture." Dante muttered, scuffing the floor in an irritated fashion. "We need a _plan_."

Silence fell on the trio for several minutes. It was broken at last by Vergil. "I think we should search for some artefact or power that will give us a fighting chance. I know of several legendary relics that might aid us."

Lady shook her head. "You said it yourself – Sparda's power was unequalled. And we don't know how much time we'd have to start Tomb Raiding for treasures that may or may not help us beat Mundus." she countered. "No, I think I have an idea …"


	15. Chapter 15

--------------------   
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XV_

"Not far now." said Dante. Beside him, Vergil said nothing. They trudged across cracked, blackened stone, the air thick with ash that showered down like snowfall. Already they could feel the heat coming from their destination over the ridge they solemnly strode up. Lady was not with them, insisting she had something to take care of, and would join the fight soon.

"Nervous?" Dante asked, glancing across at his brother. Vergil, again, said nothing. Dante nodded. "Me neither."

At last, they crested the black rock ridge, and found themselves staring across at their destination - a bizarre structure made from contoured metal, sweeping curves and elliptical rooftops. The whole thing spanned a great lake of fire and molten lava, which bubbled and spat globules of white-hot rock into the air, the heat shrouding the castle in a hazy rippling distortion.

Avernus Fortress.

"Certainly not Emerald City." Dante mumbled.

Rising up from the centre of it was a single pillar of black stone, veined in red glowing lines that criss-crossed its surface. The pillar towered above the fortress, projecting a beam of white light high into the heavens. Craning their necks up, the pair saw that the beam seemed to punch a hole through the sky, creating a vast umbrella of swirling darkness that enveloped the entire region.

"We're too late." Said Vergil. "He has already opened the door to the demon world."  
"That just makes things more interesting." Dante smiled, flexing his hands in anticipation. "Come on, let's rock!"

The demonic duo sprinted down the ridge towards a long metal bridge that spanned the lake of bubbling lava, leading to the main doors that marked the entrance to Avernus. As they drew nearer however, the length of the bridge seemed to grow, as did the size and bulk of the imposing fortress - evidently it was much bigger up close than seen from a distance overlooking it. As it was, it would probably take them several minutes of solid running just to cross the damned thing. 

They both stopped as they reached the start of the bridge and shot each other uneasy looks.  
"You just _know_ something is going to happen." Dante remarked. 

They set off together, but no sooner had they taken their first steps across it than Dante's prediction proved true. About twenty or so feet above the bridge, there was a nerve-shattering sound, like the air itself was tearing apart. A brilliant flash followed, and when their vision cleared they could see a swirling vortex of coloured light, like an inverted whirlpool. From it, a globe of light emerged. First one, then another. After a few seconds, dozens, and then hundreds were pouring from the gaping maw of the portal, swarming the bridge.

The globes of light settled on the bridge, each one exploding into a red cloud that rapidly formed the shape of a demon. Soon the bridge was packed full of mewling, screaming demons, and still the globes continued to pour forth from the vortex. They were faced with not an army, but a veritable _legion_ of foes. Hell Sins, Goatlings, Frost Demons, Plasma's and more besides. Hundreds, packing the entirety of the bridge like sardines to such an extent that the bridge itself was no longer visible.

Dante took this all in casually. He drew Ebony & Ivory, twirling them idly in his hands. "Lets get the party started!" he shouted, cocking the twin pistols and levelling them at the screeching horde. Beside him, Vergil placed his hands on the hilt of the Yamato, whilst blue-green sword blades materialised in the air around him.

Gunfire and Phantom Blades carved into the fronts ranks, dropping those demons unfortunate enough to be in the way. The twins advanced, laying down suppressive fire, but for every one they gunned down, a dozen more were ready to take their place.

And then they were on them - Yamato and Rebellion out in a flash of steel, felling the foul creatures left right and centre. Cutting, slicing, slashing, smashing. A Hell Pride slashed at Dante's head. He blocked the gleaming scythe with Rebellion, just as the Yamato came across and separated the creature's head from its body.

The two demon warriors fought their way through the throng, felling any foe that came near, but the tide of demons was unending, and when Dante paused for a split second to see how far they had come he was dismayed to see that they had barely covered any ground at all, and the vast distance they still had to cross was equally packed.

He tapped Vergil on the shoulder and arm, signalling a change in tactics. Vergil nodded, and at once they joined, forearm to forearm. They spun in a deadly dance of steel, swords flashing back and forth in wide but precise blows. In one instance Vergil dropped low, and a Hell Lust lowered its Scythe in response. To its surprise however, he then spun away, Dante coming around and swinging Rebellion high, cutting its head horizontally in half.

They moved on through the host of enemies. One would set a demon up for an attack, only to rotate away and have the other step across and finish it off. The demons found it impossible to predict their seemingly random movements, as they stepped and twirled in a lethal ballet of death, always one step ahead and always seeming to move out of the way just before any attack.

A Plasma slashed at Dante with its mimic blade. He blocked and then instead of countering, rolled over Vergil's shoulder. Vergil's opponent took a surprised blow to the chest whilst the Plasma found a Judgement Cut from the Yamato. A pair of Hell Gluttony charged Dante. He grabbed his brother's hand and swung him in a 360. The Gluttony died. A Frost leapt at the pair, its icy Frost Blade claws blurring. Still gripping his brother's hand, Dante spun Vergil up and around, hurling him into the air. The Frost was met with an Aerial Rave that split it into a dozen separate pieces, each cascading down onto the monsters below. A helm drive as he landed split a Goatling vertically in half.

The twin devil hunters then locked arms and began to spin around each other, swords fully extended, creating a wall of steel. As their momentum picked up, they swung themselves into the oncoming wall of demons. One had to give way, and it wasn't the sons of Sparda. They crashed through the ranks of their opponents, a whirlwind of bloody devastation and carnage.

As they reached the centre of the bridge, they both slowed and switched to their respective gauntlets. Facing the way they had come, Vergil slammed his fist into the ground, scattering the pursuing tide of demons with a Volcano of light. Facing the way they still had to go, Dante did the same, creating an Inferno of flames that sent many demons tumbling over the edge of the bridge, wreathed in unearthly fire.

This bought them some breathing space. They switched back to their swords and stood, back to back.  
"Having fun yet?" Dante shouted, grinning in enjoyment. This was what he lived for!  
"We still have a long way to go." Vergil warned, ever the worrywart. 

They both tensed as the throng of creatures pressed in once again. Three Hell Prides leapt into the air, bearing down on them. They were plucked from the air by a trail of fiery projectiles. Half a dozen Frosts before Dante exploded in a cloud of fire and ice. They turned and saw to their amazement the sleek black body of an attack helicopter, which swooped over them, the air from the rotor blades whipping their hair and jackets.

A volley of rockets ripped apart a sizeable chunk of the demon force as the chopper passed. It stopped and banked around, preparing for another run. As it did, Dante saw Lady sitting at the controls. She waved from inside the cockpit.  
_"Figured you guys would need some help."_ her words came through an external speaker. Dante laughed and twirled the Rebellion.  
"Bout time you joined the party!"

Lady banked the gunship sideways, tracer rounds spitting from the machine guns and cutting a path through the monsters, ripping and shredding them as if they were made of paper. Side by side, Dante and Vergil nodded to each other and charged through the gap, towards the towering gates of Avernus ...


	16. Chapter 16

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XVI_

Lady watched the sons of Sparda fight their way through the gap she had blasted in the demon army. Once they were safely inside the fortress, she turned her attention to the hundreds of demons remaining.

"Not for long …" she muttered aloud to herself. She flipped a switch on the console in front of her, arming two AT-16 Vikhr laser guided anti-tank missiles. She locked them onto the centre of the bridge and fired, the deadly weapons leaving a trail of smoke through the ash-filled air as they streaked away from her. They impacted dead on target, the tandem warheads ripping the spanning structure completely apart. It buckled, falling into the bubbling lava and dropping its occupants along with it.

Lady smiled and tilted the chopper forwards. It was a Ka-50 Russian attack helicopter, sometimes called the 'Black Shark' or 'Werewolf' which was just fine by her. As to how she had got hold of one deep in Italian airspace … some things were better off not knowing.

She pulled back on the controls and checked the display for any more sign of activity. Just as she did, the helicopter shook, jerking her head forward. She saw the world outside start to spin. Grinding her teeth, she fought for control. Rather than stabilise it though, she used the momentum from whatever had hit to pull off a wild, erratic loop –

- and came to a stop right on the tail of her attacker. In this case it really _was_ its tail. The shadow of a giant griffon loomed ahead of her, evidently surprised by her sudden disappearance, if she was any judge.

"Lets see how you like a bite in the ass!" she snapped into her intercom, jamming the fire switch on her controls and tearing into the winged demons feathered backside with 30mm slugs from the machine guns. She saw blood spray from a dozen wounds and heard the shriek even from inside the cockpit of the 'copter. The big bird swerved up and twisted mid-air, bringing it back on itself, and charged her head on. It opened its strange mouth and bolts of flickering red lightning spewed forth.

"Chicken it is then." Lady muttered, pushing the lever up on the rotor power, causing the 'Black Shark' to shoot straight up over the lightning bolts. The Ka-50 was a co-axial chopper – it had two rotors, one stacked over the other, negating the need for a tail rotor and giving the gunship unrivalled manoeuvrability – one of the reasons she had chosen it.

It paid off now. As she dodged the Griffins attack and it swooped underneath her, she whirled the chopper a clean cut 180 and fired her twin Vympel R-73 air-to-air missiles. The Griffin, sensing the attack, attempted to evade. It swooped down, diving straight at the great pool of lava. It levelled off just before it went in. The missiles didn't. If the beast could have grinned with its bizarre 'O' shaped mouth it surely would have.

For all of about three seconds, which is how long it took for it to swoop up straight into a third Vympel Lady had fired, anticipating its angle of climb.

"Sweet dreams." Lady laughed, making a fist in celebration. Her self-congratulations were short lived however, as the 'copter rocked violently. Her vision filled with red light as all of the controls were enveloped in sparks of crimson lightning. Two more Griffins, identical to the one she had just toasted, swooped over the chopper.

"Momma said there'd be days like this." She grumbled, trying to maintain control of the chopper. It was no use, the lightning blast had all but friend the electronics. The 'Werewolf' gunship rocked from side to side, smoke pouring out from the engines. Inside, the cockpit was also rapidly filling with smoke. Lady could definitely smell a fire somewhere, and it wasn't the big one a hundred feet below her.

"Now's the time for that miracle God owes me." Lady shouted over the screeching of the two Griffins that were bearing down on her …

---

Dante and Vergil proceeded into the depths of the Fortress, weapons at the ready for any sign of danger. It was a pretty impressive place, Dante had to admit. The high walls either side were of pure gold, engraved with ancient scriptures, whilst the floor and ceiling were perfectly smooth, glossy black marble.

"Sweet." He said. "Think I might move in when we're done."

Vergil rolled his eyes. They rounded a corner and found another long stretch of corridor. The place was lit with flickering braziers, but was otherwise devoid of ornament or furniture.

And demons …

"This is too easy." Vergil said, narrowing his eyes and searching for some sign of a trap. It was quiet in this grand Fortress. Too quiet.

"Oh will you relax!" Dante sheathed his sword and strode forward in what strongly resembled a swagger. "We're a complete pair of hardasses, what do _we_ have to worry about?"

The floor caved in and dropped them into a shaft. They plummeted into darkness for several long moments, until they were finally deposited in a large square, dimly lit chamber. Vergil landed flat on his face with an 'OOF!'. As he pushed himself up and tried to stand, Dante landed on top of him, flattening him back down into the dusty stone.

"It was a mistake the moment you said it." Vergil growled, shoving him off and finally standing.  
"Hey, it could have been worse." Dante said defensively, brushing himself off.  
"How?" Vergil asked sceptically.  
"Well, it could have dropped us straight into the lava."

They both paused, neither moving a muscle, as if waiting for something terrible to happen. Fortunately, nothing did, much to Vergil's relief. Honestly, he thought, his brother was clearly the less intelligent of the two.

A quick search revealed an empty square room with only two doors out. The doors were more sort of doorways, filled with darkness that neither could see through. Both were set only a few feet apart. Dante and Vergil stood before them, arms crossed, regarding them thoughtfully (Or simply 'regarding them' in Dante's case).

Suddenly, a voice from above the first doorway spoke.  
_"You are trespassing upon sacred ground."_ It said. They both glanced up and saw a carved stone head stationed above the doorway on the left. Another one, exactly the same, was sat above the right hand doorway.  
_"As punishment, you shall both face a fate worse than death."_ the second spoke, its stone lips moving as if they were alive.

"Crap! You mean you're going to leave me stuck in here, with him?" Dante gasped, pointing at his brother. Vergil glared daggers at him.

_"The only way to escape your doom is to choose a door."_ said the first, ignoring him completely.  
_"One leads to freedom."_  
_"The other to an instant and painful death."_

"Which one is which?" Vergil asked. Whether or not they heard him, he couldn't tell. They answered all the same.

_"You may ask us but one question. However one of us always lies."_  
_"And one of us always tells the truth."_

Dante groaned and placed his face in his hands.  
"I hate these things." He said. "I really do."  
"This will present no problem." Vergil said confidently.

The two faces spoke one final, ominous statement in unison;  
_"You have five minutes to make a choice."_

"Now however …" Vergil muttered darkly.


	17. Chapter 17

--------------------   
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XVII_

Lady hammered the fire switch, and amazingly managed to get the machine guns to spit their tracer rounds at the oncoming winged demons. This however caused them to split up, one flying high the other low. 

Just as she had hoped.

She waited until one of them was almost directly over the chopper, then reached over her shoulders and yanked the yellow and black levers marked 'Eject'. At once, explosive bolts built into the rotor disc detonated, blasting the twin rotors directly up and away from the copter –

- And directly into the unfortunate face of the Griffin swooping overhead, with a noise not unlike putting a sausage through a cooling fan. It's shrieks of anguish were lost to Lady, as the cockpit flipped off and rocket boosters thrust the chair she was strapped to straight into the air. To her disgust, she shot through a shower of demon blood as the mangled remains of the Griffin plummeted into the lava below.

Fighting against the rapid acceleration of the rockets beneath her chair, she twisted her head to one side in time to see the second Griffin swerve to avoid the smoking wreckage of her gunship, as it too fell into the lake of boiling fire. As the G-Forces lessened, Lady reached around and whipped the Kalina-Ann into her hands. She felt the familiar tug of gravity start to suck at her, just as she fired the blade of the launcher at the veering Demon.

It struck it in the thigh, a wound so minor it scarcely noticed. Wounding it however was not her intent. As the chair she was in begun to descend rapidly, picking up speed, Lady reached up and snapped the chair straps open. The cable connecting the Kalina-Ann and the bayonet lodged in the Griffin drew taught, plucking her out of the chair and almost wrenching the weapon from her hands.

She held on tight for dear life, as she once again found herself dangling by a thread from a flying monster. The Griffin, sensing the added weight, glanced down and saw her dangling a dozen feet below, attached to it via an impromptu cable. Insofar as she could tell from what passed as the creatures face, it did not look terribly happy. Too bad.

She slapped the button that would winch her up towards it and tensed, waiting for the pull.

Nothing happened.

Lady glared at it and hit the switch again. It started to wind her in – for all of a foot or so, then jammed. She couldn't believe it! Her trusty weapon had never once failed her!

She felt a sudden shift in position, and saw to her mounting horror that the beast was diving down towards the lava. Its intentions couldn't be clearer. Lady ground her teeth together and tried again with the winch mechanism, but it stubbornly refused to work. She felt a gut-wrenching sensation as the Griffin levelled off dangerously close to the fiery lake, the heat so intense that it felt as if she were already on fire. The cable she was dangling from swung downwards as inertia and momentum reared their ugly heads, and Lady found herself about to have the shortest bath of her life.

She tensed her arms and swung, flipping her entire body upwards, gripping the cable higher up with her feet, just as the bottom half of her faithful rocket launcher took a dip into the liquid fire. Lady screamed, the heat so great it felt as if her skin would simply melt away from her bones and drip off of her.

Then it was past, the Griffin climbing up into the comparatively cool air. Wide eyed and dangling upside down, Lady stared horror-struck at the bubbling slag that was all that remained of her favourite weapon, white hot rivulets dripping away leaving nothing behind. Above her, the Griffin glanced down again and then back up, preparing to make another dive.

Lady released her hands and used the leverage of her feet to flip her up and around once again, grabbing the intact cable above her. As she glared up at the beast, her expression contorted into one of intense hatred. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth became a grim line of determination. She climbed.

As she reached the bayonet, still dug into the demons flesh, she let go of the cable with one hand and reached over her shoulder, pulling Agni around. She stabbed the red scimitar deep into its side, causing a plume of thick, dark blood to gout out and spray her. The Griffin shrieked and barrelled over, executing a roll in an attempt to dislodge her. She yanked the blade free and released her grip on the cable as the creature swung around mid-air. Timing it to perfection, she used the momentum of its roll to hurl her high into the air above it.

As it righted itself, she whirled Rudra into her free hand and angled both blades downwards. Once again gravity took her, dropping her down onto the Griffins back. Using the force of her fall, she drove the twin demon-blades deep into its spine, sending more of the thick black ichor that served as blood spraying out in all directions like a leaky drum. The Griffin shrieked and bucked, trying to toss her off, but she held onto the hilts of the swords with unshakable determination, hatred still blazing in her eyes.

Red lightning raged all around her as the creature vented its powers in uncontrolled desperation. Gritting her teeth, whipping her blood soaked hair from her eyes, Lady pulled Agni from its back and drove it in again further up. She yanked Rudra out and did the same, slowly crawling a bloody and ragged path up the creature's spinal column. The inhuman shrieks wailed deafeningly, the Griffin whipping, spinning, diving and rolling in a terrified attempt to dislodge its monstrous passenger, but all in vain.

As she reached the shoulder blades where the wings joined the body, she forced herself to stand. Ducking to avoid an arc of crimson lightning, she tore Rudra from its jagged hole in the demons flesh and brought it around in an arc, hacking at the flimsy feathered joint of the left wing. The Griffins wails of protest went beyond the audible range, twisting her nerves into a knot. Lady released her grip on Agni, leaving it imbedded in the Griffins back. She used her free hand to grab a large handful of the sodden blood drenched feathers. Then, bringing Rudra across in another slash, she yanked with her handful and half tore, half cut through the joint. The entire wing separated, blood cascading from the revolting wound in a thick dark waterfall.

Merciless, overcome with bloodlust, Lady was still not satiated. She fought for footing, reached across and ripped out Agni from where she had left it, and then leapt. The Griffin pulled away from her, shrinking away, but gravity was again faster, pulling her back towards it as her insides squirmed from such air acrobatics. She landed heavily on its neck, driving the twin blades deep through its skull and into what passed for its brain. Fire and wind erupted from the swords, causing the Griffins entire head to explode in a grisly fountain of gore. 

What was left of the demon began to drop from the sky like a stone. Lady staggered and knelt, gripping a handful of feathers as what was now merely a sack of feathered meat screamed down towards the lava.

She waited, counted, and jumped, landing on the sloping roof of one of Avernus' strange towers. She hit it with a jarring crunch, just as the remains of her opponent took a splash, spraying blobs of molten rock high into the air. Lady slid down the roof and kicked off from the lip, spinning in mid-air. She tucked her arms and legs in, diving straight down, hot ash and gusts of wind whipping at her, rivulets of blood dripping off and falling away from her, leaving a trail of red in her wake.

A dark swarm of insect-like demons swooped in out of nowhere. The Beelzebub closed in, determined to devour her whole mid-drop, their eyes alive with hunger, their strange black limbs twitching in apprehension.

Lady reached out and jammed the hilts of her two swords together. At once they began to rotate, mimicking the rotors of her downed chopper. They whirled and whirled, creating a cyclone of fire around her. The Beelzebub unwisely continued their attack, and were incinerated and ripped apart in the ensuing Tempest.

The blades spun faster and started to slow her descent. She whipped her body around and landed on a deserted balcony with a jarring Thud! Agni and Rudra separated and she twirled them around her body in frenzy of movement that was half hers and half theirs, hacking apart the remaining insectoids that launched a suicidal charge on her. 

Finally her momentum wound down. She stood, breathing so heavily she feared her lungs might erupt, but more elated than she had ever been in her entire life.

The singed limbs of various Beelzebub rained down around her as she struck a finishing pose. Perhaps she had spent too much time around Dante, her scarred and numbed mind thought.

She fell onto her knee's, sucking in fast gulps of air as she leant on the two swords.  
"Impressive." They said together. Lady glanced up and stared at them. Then she let out a chuckle and promptly collapsed from exhaustion.


	18. Chapter 18

--------------------   
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XVIII_

_"You have five minutes to make a choice."_

Dante and Vergil stood for a moment, staring at the doors as if expecting the correct one to simply light up. Finally, Dante leaned over to Vergil and whispered in his ear.  
"Ok, I have a plan."  
"Really?" Vergil looked surprised.  
"Yeah, listen. You pick a door and go through it. If it's the right one then you come back and get me. If it's the wrong one I'll hear you screaming and I'll know to go through the other door." 

Vergil stared at his brother. Then, silently, he reached up and smacked him painfully across the back of the head.  
"Ow! What the hell was that for?"  
"For being such an insufferable moron."  
"Well _one_ of us has to make it to stop Mundus. My plan at least guarantee's that much."

Vergil ignored him and advanced on the two doors, regarding them carefully. Then he turned back to Dante.  
"This is an old riddle. The answer is simple. You ask each one 'Which door will _he_ tell me is the correct door?'. The one who tells the truth will honestly tell you which door the liar will try and misleadingly send us through. The liar will of course lie and tell us the opposite door that the truth would send us through. Both should give the same answer, and the door they indicate is not the one we should go through."

Dante's mouth hung open as he tried to digest this. He glanced up, his eyes darting about and lips moving as if he was holding a silent conversation. Vergil patiently crossed his arms and waited.  
"Ok," Dante said eventually. "Got it."

Vergil nodded and turned, preparing to ask the questions, when he was interrupted. "Wait!" shouted Dante. Vergil turned back, mild irritation showing across his features.  
"What?"   
"I've just realised something."  
Vergil sighed. "Dante, we are running out of time."  
He shook his finger back and forth. "No, its important! Ok, they said that one of them always tells the truth?"  
"Right."   
"And one of them always lies."  
"Of course, otherwise it would be too easy."  
Dante frowned and shook his head. "It is too easy. Think about it – if one of them _always_ lies, then by that token one of those statements has to be false."

Vergil opened and closed his mouth several times. Finally he said "What?"   
"Well it's obvious, isn't it? If A tells the truth and B lies, then when B _says_ one of us always lies then _that_ must be a lie since he always lies, doesn't he? Unless he was the one who said 'One of us always tells the truth.' in which case that's a lie and neither of them do. Now we know they cant both be telling the truth because one of them would need to lie in order to tell us that one of them was a liar, so they must both be liars because one of those statements is false, leaving the only logical conclusion that they are both lying, in which case we cant trust _anything_ they have said."

Vergil gaped at him, completely lost, whilst Dante paced back and forth frantically, waving his hands about.  
"But that means we might not even have five minutes. It could be even less."

"Wait, that cant work." Vergil said dismissively, "If they were both liars then the one that said 'One of us always lies' would be telling the truth!"  
"No, that's a lie as well! Remember, he said _one_ of us always lies. The _truth_ is that they _both_ lie!"  
"And the one that said 'One of us always tells the truth' was a lie as well?"  
"Of course!"  
"But then that means that both doors might lead to certain death!"  
"I know!"

Vergil turned to stare wide-eyed at the two sinister doorways. "Then what are we supposed to do?"  
"My plan again?" Dante suggested tentatively. Vergil slowly rotated his head and glared at Dante in a way that spoke 'NO' in audible volumes. "Ok then, gimme a minute." He said, staring back up at the ceiling and mouthing in silent conversation as he worked through the solution.

Vergil tapped his foot impatiently, arms crossed. After a while he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Dante. "Not a minute yet." He hissed, waving his hand.

More time passed.

"Still not a minute."

More time …

"Dante-" Vergil began. Dante clapped his hands together and smiled.  
"Got it!" He strode up to the doors confidently and glared up at the stone head above the left.

"What door would I send him through?" he asked, pointing at Vergil.  
_"The right hand doorway."_ It answered. Vergil gaped at him, as he addressed the same question to the right stone head.  
_"The right hand doorway."_ It also responded.

Before Vergil could protest, Dante grabbed his arm and yanked him through the right doorway, and into the darkness beyond.


	19. Chapter 19

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XIX_

When Lady had recovered enough stamina to go on, she checked her equipment, pausing briefly to lament the loss of her favourite weapon. It was a pain, but then it had been that or her life …

With Agni & Rudra sheathed across a special back holster she had borrowed from Dante, Lady drew her pistol and began a search of the tower she had found herself in. It was lavishly decorated in gold and marble, lit by flickering torches. Other than this however, it was deserted, and devoid of any apparent exits.

Save for one door.

Lady approached it cautiously. It was made from a rather plain metal that looked like steel or something similar, and was devoid of any decorations or symbols. There was no handle or keyhole either, but a switch fixed to the wall. She pressed it, and at once the metal doors slid open with a low mechanical hum. She leapt back, pistol aimed and ready.

Beyond was a tiny square room big enough to hold about two or three people, with little space to move around. It was made of the same dull metal as the door, and was completely empty.

Wary of a trap, Lady stepped in, ready to dart back at the first sign of trouble. Nothing, however, happened. She turned around and saw a sequence of buttons arrayed in a line next to the door.  
"A lift." She observed. Well, she figured, if she was at the top floor of this tower and Dante and Vergil were likely somewhere on the first floor, then all she had to do ...

She pressed the lowest switch, and at once the doors slid shut and the lift began to descend. Above, she could hear the sound of mechanical clunking and whirring as whatever machinery operated the lift went to work.

Smiling, Lady lowered her pistol and leaned against the back of the lift, sighing. She wondered how the Sons of Sparda were fairing. No doubt kicking some major demonic ass, she had no doubt …

---

Dante and Vergil fell into the darkness. They came to an abrupt stop with the ground, which greeted them with its usual rough, stony embrace. Vergil sighed wearily as he picked himself up and, completely ignoring his groaning brother, glanced around the room they now occupied.

"There, I got us through that didn't I?" Dante said, getting to his feet and again brushing himself off.  
"Luck." Vergil muttered.  
"Oh come on! Admit it, I'm brilliant!"  
"Oh yes, its certainly comforting to know that you would gladly send me to an instant and painful death without reserve." Vergil snapped irritably.  
"Like you wouldn't do the same." Dante muttered darkly, turning away from him. Vergil didn't answer.

They were in a wide rectangular chamber cut from polished stone. There were several doors leading out of the room. Dante however ignored these and squinted across the chamber towards a small square plaque, which adorned the far wall.  
They both walked towards it, and as they got closer they could just make out the words 'DANGER' engraved on it, as well as something else in smaller print beneath it. Vergil stopped at once, but Dante, ever the curious cat, continued on.

"I cant quite make it out …" he said, leaning in close to try and read the fine print. Suddenly, the entire sign sprang forwards and rammed itself into his face. Since it happened to be attached to a large stone block at the time, this proved quite painful.

Dante rolled on the ground, dazed and clutching his bleeding nose. As he stared up at the ceiling, Vergil stepped into view and glared down at him. He rolled his eyes and walked off.

---

Lady glanced at her watch. The timing of their plan would be critical once they met up. It had to be exact. Too soon and Mundus would have time to escape. Too late, and the twin devil hunters wouldn't stand a chance …

The lift shook violently. From above came the screeching of the mechanism grinding to a painful sounding halt. The tiny room juddered, shook one final time, and then fell still and silent. Lady glanced all around, but the small lift was entirely sealed shut. She hammered the buttons, but nothing happened.

Except that a voice filled the room. It wasn't menacing exactly, and yet it still caused her some concern …  
_"We apologise for the delay, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Help will arrive within the hour."_  
Lady gaped in astonishment as the voice was replaced with an irritating and droll tune.  
"You have _got_ to be kidding me!" she yelled to no one in particular. The stupid music continued to play on regardless.

Grinding her teeth in frustration, she holstered her pistol and began hammering the buttons. Unsurprisingly, they did nothing. She turned to the door and considered prising it open, but the join was so fine she'd need a crowbar at least, and even then she doubted if she could get them open.

That left only one other way out. She craned her neck upwards and stared at the ceiling. Yes, as luck would have it, there was a small square hatch fit flush into the roof of the lift. Lady lowered her gaze and took in the dimensions of the small room. Yes, that would work …

She planted her foot on one wall, hoisted herself up and swung her other foot onto the other, spanning the lift with a leg split. Slowly, she walked her way upwards until she could reach out and touch the hatch. With no visible handle, she tried slamming the palm of her hands into it. It budged slightly. Taking a deep breath, she planted her hands on it, tensed, then pushed with all her strength. Slowly … painfully slow, she raised the hatch. At halfway, it suddenly became easier and she flung it right back and hoisted herself deftly through the new exit and onto the outside roof of the lift.

This was all fine and well, however there was one small problem she hadn't counted on. The dark lift shaft beyond was densely filled with chlorine gas. Chlorine is not colourless or odourless, but it _is_ extremely harsh on the respiratory system.

Almost immediately she began to choke. Whipping her arm across her mouth and nose, she tried to find some way out, but there was none that she could see. Her skin burned, her eyes watered, blurring her already obscured vision. She couldn't go back into the lift – the thing must be airtight and she didn't think she could hoist that damn hatch lid back into place whilst breathing in lungfulls of noxious fumes.

There really was only one other alternative, and it amounted to suicide, but she was out of options. Lady drew her pistol, aimed it as best as she could at the cables holding the lift, and fired …


	20. Chapter 20

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XX_

Grumbling profusely, Dante staggered up and wiped the blood from his nose onto his sleeve. Happily, it didn't show – one of the advantages of wearing red really. His nose had already healed and the blood flow stemmed, but his pride was more injured than his face.

"All right then fearless leader, what now?"  
Vergil opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted as they both heard a tremendous screeching coming from behind the door in front of them. They both turned and stared at it.  
"What the hell?" Dante muttered.

---

As the cables snapped free, the lift at once dived downwards, the rapid acceleration hurling Lady onto her back and pressing her down. What little air she had left was blasted from her lungs, and when she instinctively tried to breath, Chlorine fumes poured down her throat and seared her lungs. As the lift shaft screamed past her, she realised that she had mere moments left to live unless she did something.

She whipped her arm over her mouth and nose and used it as a sort of filter to try and suck in a few particles of muffled air. With only seconds left before the lift crashed into the bottom, she swiftly got to her feet, took one last breath, then drew Agni & Rudra and jumped up.

The lift continued to fall away beneath her. She didn't jump very far however, her downwards momentum soon halting her ascension and tugging her back down. But it was still enough – enough to ram the scimitars into the sides of the lift shaft and slow her descent.

Below her, the lift slammed into the lowest floor at what was close to terminal velocity …

---

Dante and Vergil both turned and stared bewildered at each other. A horrible sense of foreboding dawned on Dante. He grabbed the lapel of Vergil's dark green overcoat and yanked him off his feet, pulling him away from the door, just as it exploded outwards in a ferocious fireball. They were still so close that they could feel the intense blast of heat on their exposed skin as a massive jet of liquid fire poured out from the doorway, the metal frame blasted into the opposite wall with the force of a rail cannon.

They stumbled onto the floor once again, as sound caught up with events and a deafening roar of noise washed over them like a tidal wave. After what seemed like an age, everything subsided and time seemed to return to its normal flow. Vergil stared at Dante, who was lying protectively on top of him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, clearing his throat. Dante stared at him, then up and around, then back down at him, a look of shellshock on his face.  
"Sorry." He mumbled. "Reflex action." He got to his feet, looking somewhat sheepish. Vergil stood and took a step back, eyeing him suspiciously.  
"What?" said Dante. "I'm used to working with very fragile women. They need protecting."

They both heard the sound of metal screeching, like fingernails and blackboards that grated on the nerves. They turned back to the wrecked remains of what was apparently a lift – or had been at one time, and instinctively drew their weapons, preparing to warmly greet whatever monstrosity appeared from the burning wreckage.

Lady rolled out from the billowing clouds of smoke and collapsed onto her knees in a coughing fit. When this subsided, she sucked in deep gulps of air, tears streaming from her eyes, her face covered in black soot.  
Dante's weapons fell limply to his side. He stared at her, past her at the raging inferno, then turned and stared at the heavy metal doorframe that was imbedded in the stone wall from the blast. As he watched it, it promptly fell forwards and clattered loudly onto the ground, the metal bubbling gently as it cooled.

Finally, he turned and looked at Vergil, lost for words. His brother frowned and crossed his arms, a sarcastic sneer spreading across his features.  
"Fragile?"  
"Shut up." Dante muttered. He holstered his pistols and helped Lady to her feet. "Been having fun?"  
Lady wiped the tears from her bloodshot eyes and coughed lightly. "Oh, you know. Just thought I'd take a spin in the Hellevator."

There was another loud crash. Dante and Lady turned to see Vergil, who had kicked open another door and had stuck his head into the room beyond. He leaned back and beckoned for them to follow without saying a word. Dante rolled his eyes and turned back to Lady.

"Don't mind him. He's just a jackass. Can't help it I'm sure."  
Lady laughed and together they hurried after him.  
"By the way," she said, "What happened to your nose?"


	21. Chapter 21

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XXI_

"This is it."  
The trio stood amidst the courtyard and stared up … and further up. The black, red-veined pillar stretched up far, far into the sky, spewing its sickening light that continued to blanket the entire region in impenetrable darkness.

"How are you guys getting up there?" Lady asked, squinting up at the thing.  
"I'm not." Said Dante, drawing surprised looks from the other two. "Think I'll just sit myself down here," which he did. "And let Vergil climb up and save the world."

Vergil snorted, whilst Lady shook her head and glanced around the courtyard. She spotted a flight of stone steps leading down to her right and pointed towards it.  
"There." She said. "That should take me down to the ante-chamber in the basement."  
"And you are certain this will work?" Vergil asked her. She glanced at him, lit by the hellish red hue from the pillar, and shrugged.  
"If you have a better idea …" she trailed off. As it was, he didn't. He strolled over to Dante and yanked him to his feet.  
"Hey! Easy on the merchandise."  
"Shut up."  
"Good luck." Lady said. Vergil stared at her for a moment. He nodded slightly, then snapped his head around and barked at Dante.  
"Ready?"  
Dante looked incredulous. "Man, I was _born_ ready."

Lady sniggered and drew her pistol. As blue fire enveloped the twins, Dante waved to her. "Have fun!" she heard him say, before they were engulfed, a ball of pale blue fire streaking upwards. Lady watched it for a moment, before turning and hurrying off towards the stairs.

---

They materialised upon the very top of the pillar of Avernus. As soon as he felt solid stone beneath his feet, Dante yanked his arm from his brothers grasp and strode forwards with his customary swagger.

It was just like the circular pillar of the Temen-ni-gru. They stood upon a wide metal disc with intricate carvings, and at the centre some kind of mechanism spewed forth a strange light. It was presumably this that was expanding the portal to the demon world above them.

Vergil stepped up to the edge of the circle, and found himself staring down at Avernus Fortress, which seemed tiny from such a height. It was a long way down …

"Lets get this show on the road then, shall we?" said Dante, stepping up to the centre of the circle and drawing his sword. Vergil pulled back and walked over, to stand opposite him. He too drew his sword, the Yamato. As one, they both extended the palm of their left hands and drew the blade of their swords across them, slicing neatly into the flesh. They then turned their palms downwards and let the blood flow into the clear liquid at the centre of the strange mechanism. The liquid clouded red from the droplets of their blood, and was soon black in colour.

As they did this, they both muttered ancient incantations that Lady had forced them to memorise several hours ago. After several seconds the cuts in their hands healed and the flow of blood subsided. They both sheathed their blades (Vergil whipping his around in a swift motion which flicked the blood clear of his weapon) and stood back.

Nothing happened.

Nevertheless, they both wore satisfied expressions. Dante cracked his knuckles and started humming under his breath. Vergil crossed his arms and began tapping his foot. Now they had to wait … now it was Lady's turn.

---

Lady descended once more into the bowels of Avernus fortress, but this time closer to her goal. Pistol gripped in her sweating hands, she wiped a mixture of soot and moisture from her brow and breathed heavily. The humidity was intense, the heat building as she sprinted down and around non-descript passages, until finally –

"I found it." She said, staring wide-eyed around the cavernous chamber. It was perfectly round and at least thirty to forty feet high, cut from jet-black obsidian mixed with luminite, which cast an eerie glow over the hall. At the centre was a wide pedestal made from what seemed to be a smooth white metal. The same red light that issued forth from the pillar outside was being projected from the pedestal and up to the ceiling.

All around it, reaching from the floor straight up to the ceiling, were great pillars of glowing violet crystal. Arcs of raw energy crackled between them, and she could see that each pillar fed a line of power through the floor and into the white pedestal.

She advanced, cautiously, aware that such an important place would not have been left unguarded. She reached the pedestal and holstered her pistol. Glancing nervously around, she drew a knife and began repeating the steps of Dante and Vergil, letting her blood flow into the light whilst chanting the same strange language …

---

Vergil was just about to demand that Dante cease humming, when he was interrupted by a deep roll of thunder. They both fell silent and stared up into the blackness above them.

Three red orbs materialised in the air, arcs of glowing energy dancing back and forth between them. Vergil smiled up at them.  
"It seems we warrant his personal attention, brother!" he shouted.  
"About damn time! What the hell took you so long?" Dante yelled up at the sinister eyes.

_"Foolish humans."_

A chill shot down their spines as they heard the voice of Mundus, a voice they both detested with all their hearts. Still, if they felt any fear they knew better than to show it.  
"You know, you're right? He's a total fool. Can't take him anywhere." He said, pointing at Vergil, who scowled at him.

_"Pitiful. I shall snuff out your worthless lives with a wave of my hand."_

Dante stared at the eyes, then across at Vergil. "Hey, is it just me, or does he sound scared?"  
Vergil nodded. "He does. I think he is afraid of us."

_"Silence scum!"_ Mundus' voice boomed around them. The eyes flared and a massive bolt of lightning shot towards them. They both dashed away, leaving an afterimage in the air as they moved with blurring speed. The bolt struck the ground where they had stood an instant before, leaving a black, smoking scorch mark.

"Is that all you got?" Dante screamed at the eyes. "Cause I can dance all day!"  
"Show us you're true power!" Vergil shouted, clenching his hand into a fist.

As if on cue, there was a tremendous flash of light that momentarily lit up the umbrella of darkness that shrouded the land. Then the darkness itself split apart, and Mundus stepped through …

---

Lady finished chanting. She lowered the knife and stared down at the now inky black pool of liquid.

Nothing happened.

Suddenly, her watch beeped loudly, a strange artificial sound, like a chirping. She stared at it, the digits 00:00 flashing on and off. That was it, time was up. They'd done it – assuming Dante and Vergil had encountered no problems, it would all soon be over.

The idea had come to her even before their meeting at the office. Mundus was an even greater threat than ever before because he now had Sparda's powers … but, she recalled from the stories her father had told her, Sparda had sealed his power away with the rest of the demon world, fearing that it had grown too great. He had used a spell, an ancient piece of magic that sacraficed his own devils blood and the blood of a mortal priestess. The same blood that flowed through her veins.

So, she had reasoned. If they were to recreate the spell – using Dante and Vergil's blood in place of Sparda's, and hers in place of the priestess (Just as Arkham had once done) then they could close the portal to the demon world and trap Sparda's power on the other side. If they timed it just right, then Mundus would be trapped in the mortal body of Sparda in _this_ world, whilst his prized powers were stuck in the underworld. He would be helpless.

That was the plan, and at that instant the entire fortress began to tremble. Tremors shook through the ground, chunks of obsidian raining down and shattering on the ground around her. Lady grinned and thumped the air in celebration. It was working! The spell was working!

---

Dante and Vergil stood together, and stared dumbfounded up at the being that emerged before them. It was the demonic form of Sparda, but it was _huge_. At least ten feet tall and broader than both of them put side by side. Massive horns curled around the side of a dark head, of which they could see only three red slits of light – the eyes of the devil. The massive demon was held aloft by four great bat-like wings that seemed to be formed out of tangible darkness. And finally, sheathed across its broad back, was the Sparda sword itself.

Mundus swooped down, leaving a trail of crackling red energy in his wake. His strange wings beat at the air, and he came to a halt, hovering a good dozen or so feet above them, arms crossed patiently. His twisted black face turned to regard them, and he leered at them in much the same way one would glare in annoyance at a troublesome fly.

_"So Vergil, have you come crawling back to serve your true master?"_

"The strings are cut, Mundus! I am no longer your puppet!" Vergil shouted defiantly. "The sons of Sparda have come to finish you, once and for all!"

They heard a strange, metallic wailing, and realized a moment later that Mundus was laughing.  
_"What can you possibly hope to accomplish? You have no power. No weapons that can harm me. There is nothing you can do. I can wipe you both from existence with the slightest gesture."_ He threw his arms out wide and roared in rage down at them, a massive blast of air driving them both backwards as if they were standing in the face of a hurricane. _"I AM A GOD AND YOU WILL BOW BEFORE ME!"_

Suddenly, they heard a tiny but distinct Beeping. As the gale subsided, Dante glanced at the watch on his wrist, which was flashing 00:00. He shot a look at Vergil, who smiled callously. Together, they turned and glared malevolently up at Mundus.  
"The only person who shall bow is you, Mundus." Vergil said.  
"This is your last curtain call, dude." Said Dante.

The entire fortress began to shake and tremble, the pillar vibrating as powerful tremors shot up it and almost hurled them both to their feet. A massive wave of energy erupted from deep within the bowels of the fortress, which swept outwards in all directions.

When it struck Mundus, there was an explosion of light. All sound ceased. Everything went white.

Finally, it subsided. Their vision and hearing returned. Dante had to stop and catch his breath, or he would have punched the air and Whooped. He grinned across at his brother.  
"It worked!" he started to say. Vergil's expression froze him cold. He was staring up at something. Dante turned, and saw to his horror that Mundus still drifted aloft, completely unchanged. "No!"

"How?" Vergil muttered, unbelieving. Above them, Mundus let out another nerve-grating laugh.

_"Pathetic fools! Did you think I would not know what you had done? How can you still doubt my power? Your pitiful spell was less than a nuisance to me."_ He sailed up higher into the air and gestured with his great black, claw like hands, causing the very air to crackle with energy.

_"I am a God – and now, you shall feel my wrath!"_


	22. Chapter 22

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XXII_

Dante and Vergil got to their feet and glanced at each other. "Looks like we'll just have to do this the old fashion way." Said Vergil coldly. Dante nodded and turned and pointed at Mundus.  
"Been looking forward to kicking your ass again."  
_"Worthless insects! I will crush the life from you! Your pain shall be legendary! When I have finished tearing your weak, human bodies to shreds, your souls shall spend an eternity in torment!"_

Vergil leaned his head to one side and sighed. "How about a little less conversation …"  
"And a little more action please." Dante finished.

Mundus snarled and pulled his hands back, then whipped them forwards, hurling two massive fireballs at the pair. They dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding them. Vergil summoned the Beowulf and began sending a volley of Zodiac fireballs mixed with charged blue bolts of his own. For good measure, he threw in a constant barrage of Phantom Blades as well.

All of this arcane artillery was directed at Mundus, and of it all, none of it had any noticeable effect on him. Nevertheless Vergil maintained the fusillade whilst Mundus, completely unfazed by the powerful attacks, punched the air rapidly in his direction, spitting a torrent of massive red fireballs at him.

Dante intercepted these mid-air, batting them back with a flicker of slashes from his Rebellion, sending them hurtling back at the Dark Emperor, who was engulfed in a massive explosion.

Vergil relented as Dante landed lightly beside him, sword still drawn. They stared up and watched as the smoke cleared …

… and Mundus leered down at them, completely unharmed. All that firepower had failed to even scratch him. Dante ground his teeth, leaned forwards and dashed beneath Mundus. He turned back and signalled to Vergil, who charged up a massive blue fireball and sent it spinning towards his brother. Dante struck it with a High Time, blasting it upwards to strike their opponent from below.

Mundus twisted aside with a beat of his huge wings, the fireball sizzling the air mere inches from him. He cupped his clawed hands together and unleashed a stream of black lightning at Dante, the crackling energy arcing through the air in a flash. Dante met it with a Prop Shredder, catching it on the blade of his sword which he then rammed into the metal floor beneath him, causing the energy to spread and diffuse outwards in all directions.

Meanwhile, Vergil had teleported above the floating monstrosity. He landed heavily on Mundus' shoulders and began pounding his head repeatedly with powerful blows from the Beowulf. The attacks, which would surely have caved in the skull of even the strongest demon, seemed to do little more than irritate Mundus, who reached up to grab the dark slayer.

Vergil twisted aside, slipping out of his grasp and dropping down off his shoulders. He held onto Mundus' arm with one hand and planted his feet onto his chest, bringing himself eye-to-eye with his nemesis. He then drew his gloved fist back and rammed it right in between the three red eyes, before turning and jumping back down to the ground before Mundus could respond.

As the two brothers stood side by side, Mundus roared in anger and spun away from them, beating his large dark wings. He stopped, and in a flash of movement whipped the Sparda sword over his back and sent it spinning towards them, the demonic weapon morphing into its Scythe shape, making a Whum-Whum sound as it tore through the air. They both jerked aside a split second before it was on them.

The sword imbedded itself in the ground behind them. They stared at it, and then at each other. They each bore an identical cut across their cheek, droplets of blood spilling onto the floor.

As Mundus crashed down onto the ground a few dozen feet away, they both wiped the cuts with the back of their hands and turned to face their deadly opponent.  
"Its time for the gloves to come off." Said Vergil, dismissing the light gauntlets and greaves and placing a hand on the hilt of the Yamato. Dante nodded and whipped the Rebellion around in a circle, bringing the tip of the blade to rest on the ground in front of him.  
"Lets bring it." He said.

---

Lady backed away from the pedestal, glancing around worriedly. Something was wrong. The crystal monuments that ringed the device continued to pump glowing energy into it, and the strange light was still being channelled through the great pillar. "It didn't work." She murmured. "Why didn't it work?"

"Because, my dear, one cannot hope to vanquish the _true_ King of Hell!"

Lady froze. The voice that had spoke was a voice she had heard in her nightmares since she was a child. It was a voice that woke her up in the small hours of the morning, drenched in sweat. It was a voice she couldn't possibly hear because it belonged to …

Her Scorpion was out in a flash, as she deftly drew the machine pistol and spun a 180.

But there was no one there.

Lady started to back off, fingering the trigger anxiously, eyes wide with fear.

"I can't tell you how _glad_ I am to see you are still alive my precious …"

Realisation dawned on her. With painful slowness, she raised her gaze upwards, and found herself staring into a pair of mismatching eyes on an upturned face that was nonetheless all too familiar.

"I have been so looking forward to some sweet revenge ... my darling daughter." Said Arkham, smiling maliciously down at her from his perch on the ceiling, as if he had somehow inverted gravity.

Lady was too shocked to react. Under any other circumstances she would have riddled the speaker with a hundred holes by now, but the sight of her dead father was too much for her to take. When she finally did regain enough motor control to raise her weapon and fire, it was too late.

Arkham disappeared, reappearing some distance away, but on the ground now. Lady readjusted her aim and squeezed the trigger, spitting bullets at him. She screamed as the weapon rattled in her hands, screamed in defiance and disbelief. Arkham _moved_, shifting about like some old stopgap photography. One second he was standing there, the next, he was half a dozen feet away, then a dozen feet closer, moving in increasing increments that were too fast for her to keep up with.

Before she knew it he was on her, ripping the Scorpion from her hands and slamming it into the side of her head with enough force to drive her to the ground seeing stars.  
"No … how … I killed you." She breathed, wincing in pain as he casually tossed the weapon aside.  
"Yes, yes you did." He said, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "That was most vexing. And yet, I must confess a certain fatherly pride … that my only daughter should be such an efficient _killer_ …" The way he said the word, as if he had coated it with slime or worse, made her skin crawl. She flipped backwards, up onto her feet, a pistol in her hands and level with his face. She fired instantly, not wasting any time with words.

The bullets stopped less than an inch from Arkham's mildly amused face, hovering there like a swarm of angry metal bee's. And then, as if a switch had been flicked, they fell to the floor, clattering lightly against the smooth obsidian.

Arkham tilted his head slightly and frowned. "And I can see you would have no compunction against doing the same again. Tell me, Mary, did you enjoy it? Putting a bullet into my brain? Pulling the trigger again and again and again-"

"Shut up!" She screamed at him, lowering the pistol.  
"_Murdering_ me?"  
"You deserved it!" she spat venomously, edging away from him. He considered this for a moment and then nodded, clasping his hands together.  
"Yes, I suppose I did. There's just one problem however …"  
"And what's that?" she asked, buying for time as she edged her hands towards the hilts of Agni & Rudra. Arkham stared straight into her eyes and grinned insanely, showing the madness deep within his soul.  
"If you send a truly evil man to hell, there's a good chance the Devil might offer him a job."

Lady drew the twin swords in a flash of speed just as Arkham attacked.


	23. Chapter 23

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XXIII_

As Dante and Vergil charged at Mundus, the Dark Emperor cartwheeled, yes actually _cartwheeled_ towards them. Twin glowing red energy blades sprang forth from his wrists, leaving dazzling trails in the air as he spun towards them in a frenzied blur.

Dante cut his losses and checked his advance, dropping and rolling to avoid becoming a carved roast. Vergil however had better concentration and reflexes. He dived on, blocked and twirled to one side, slashing out with imperceptible quickness with the Yamato, scoring a dozen swift cuts across the demons black flesh.

As Mundus landed with a thud unharmed on his cloven feet, Vergil spun and sheathed the sword. The precise cuts he had scored had failed to even leave a mark. He had the sneaking suspicion that if they were in an RPG game they'd be scoring big fat 0's in damage against their seemingly peerless foe.

But Dante had yet to make his play. As he got to his feet, Ebony & Ivory where out, spitting bullets at Mundus in rapid succession. The projectiles bounced off, leaving sparks as the metal jacketed rounds crumpled against an immovable object. Mundus sneered disdainfully at the puny weapons as Dante advanced …

… dropping his twin handguns and pulling out his twin barrelled sawn-off shotgun. He fired, the shells leaving a huge trail of sparks across Mundus' torso, just as he ejected them, snapped the weapon shut and fired again. And again, and again, all the while advancing. When he was less than five feet away, he dived forward and rammed the twin barrels into the demonic face of his opponent, unloading two shells fully charged with his devil energy.

As Mundus staggered back, throwing his arm across his face, Dante dropped the shotgun and pulled the Rebellion around in a deadly arc, the metal blade whistling through the air, screeching like a banshee that was heralding a fast approaching death.

The blade jarred to a halt as Mundus reached out and caught it idly in one hand with the arm he had been covering his face with. As Dante struggled to free the sword, sweat dripping down his straining features, Mundus glowered at him with an almost playful expression, once again showing that he was completely unharmed.

Knowing that he could not free the sword, Dante released his right hand and slammed it into the Emperors jaw. Mundus' head didn't even shift an inch. Dante's did, when Mundus returned the complement. As the red devil sailed through the air and landed in a crumpled heap, Mundus tossed the Rebellion away and glared after him.

Vergil however caught his attention when he attempted to plunge the Yamato straight through his back. To his dismay and mild annoyance, the tip of the supernaturally sharp weapon was turned aside, kicking up sparks just as Dante's bullets had. Snarling, Mundus whipped his arm around to swipe at him. Vergil ducked and slashed out at his legs and feet, dodged aside to avoid another blow, then brought the sword up to catch the two energy blades that sprang out of Mundus' wrists again.

Several dozen feet away, Dante shook his head and staggered to his feet. "What a cheap shot." he muttered, wincing and straightening his lower jaw.

"Dante!" Vergil cried out through clamped teeth, as Mundus used his godly strength to force the Yamato further and further back, pushing Vergil towards the edge of the pillar. At once, Dante ran towards them - slowing only minutely to snatch up his sword on the way. He charged at Mundus just as the King of Hell retracted his energy blades abruptly, catching Vergil off balance and punching him in the mid-riff with a blow that sent him plummeting over the edge.

"Damn you Mundus!" Dante screamed, sprinting headlong at him with his sword trembling in his hand, trailing sparks behind him as he dragged the tip across the metal ground. Mundus glanced at him and then casually extended his left hand. The Sparda sword - still embedded in the ground - shook free and shot into his waiting grasp. Almost instantly the blade morphed into its normal sword form as he thrust it towards the fast approaching figure of Dante. The blade changed again, expanding into its lance form.

Dante had but a split second to curse the laws of inertia and momentum, as his headlong run impaled him on the tip of his father's weapon. The blade section went clean through and out the other side. The pain was unbelievable, made all the more intense as bolts of black/red lightning coursed down the shaft of the lance, filling every pore of his body with white hot fire.

"Gggyaaaaahhhhhh!" He screamed, as Mundus lifted the weapon high into the air, causing him to sink further and further down the shaft. The Rebellion clattered to the ground as he fell further downwards, the power of Sparda still tearing and crackling at his flesh. He prized open his agonised eyes, and found himself staring into the malevolent gaze of three red slits that were filled with such malice he could feel the hatred and loathing even through the haze of pain.

"_DIE."_ said Mundus.

---

Lady slid across the floor and lay there, panting heavily through bruised ribs. Arkham stopped and stared down at the two demon swords, before kicking them aside and advancing on his daughter. He reached down and dragged her up by the neck, ignoring her feeble attempts to struggle free.

"Oh how I have dreamed off this day, Mary." He said, his voice making her skin crawl as she clawed, scraped and kicked at him, to no avail. "A chance for revenge. I was so close … _so_ infuriatingly close to my lifelong goal, and you stood in my way." He punched her. It wasn't a fancy punch and wouldn't win any martial arts awards, but it was the kind of punch that didn't need style when it was backed by that much force. Lady's head lolled back and she stopped fighting him, too dazed to focus.

"You ruined _everything_!" he growled at her. "I would have been a God!" He hit her again, and again, blood pouring from her nose and mouth. "But," he continued, ceasing his venting. "As luck would have it fate offered me a second chance. I shall have to settle for becoming the Devils disciple until a better opportunity presents itself."

Lady had taken her fair share of punishment over the years as she worked alongside Dante (Especially over the past few days), and just as he had said, she was a fighter. She managed to shake the dizziness from her head and focus her eyes on her much hated father. She spat a broken tooth from her mouth and snarled at him, blood bubbling at the corner of her mouth.

Arkham smiled and drew his fist back for one final punch. "You'll enjoy hell." He said, grinning like an insane and demented shark. "After all, I should know ..."

"You like hell so much?" Lady snapped, fury edging her voice. Arkham frowned as she whipped her hand up and rammed a grenade right into his grinning mouth, breaking several teeth of his own as she forced the bulbous object down his throat. "_Go there._"

She pulled the pin and scrambled back as Arkham let go of her and tried to pull the object free. She was able to get to her feet and dive away, just as the thing detonated and everything went white.


	24. Chapter 24

Sorry, I realise I'm overdoing the action and fighting, but this is like the end game boss fights, so please bear with me.

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XXIV_

As Vergil plummeted down the side of the towering pillar, he calmly sheathed his sword, flinching only from the painful blow Mundus had given him. Not for the first time was he glad for his demonic heritage, which had now prevented his entire chest from caving in from the horrendous attack.

The wind whipped and whirled at him as he descended, snatching at his long overcoat and hair. He gestured with his hands and summoned the Beowulf, the light gauntlets and greaves materialising in a flash of white energy. At once, he thrust his now armoured hands out and drove them into the side of the pillar. The metal claws dug into the dark material, gouging deep lines in the smooth surface as his descent slowed.

Finally he came to a stop. Pausing only to dig his clawed greaves into the red-veined pillar, he immediately set about clambering upwards, back towards the summit. Muscles pumping furiously from exertion, he picked up the pace as he heard a disquieting cry of pain that could only have come from his brother.

Vergil crested the top just in time to see a gross and horrific tableau; Mundus, brandishing the extended Sparda sword with Dante impaled like meat on a stick, bolts of hellish lightning coursing into his body. As Vergil got to his feet, Mundus flicked the weapon, hurling Dante away to land in a bloody, unmoving heap a dozen feet away.

"_Worthless …"_ Mundus muttered, returning the Sparda sword to its default form with a flick of the wrist and sheathing it across his back, nestled between the enormous folds of his black wings.

Vergil stared open-mouthed at the still and tattered form of his brother, then across at the towering and sinister shape of Mundus. A shape that Vergil had admired his entire life – the shape of his father Sparda. But now Mundus had burrowed into his fathers corpse like an insect, corrupting his once noble form with his cancerous darkness. As Mundus slowly turned away, Vergil's eyes flickered back and forth between him and Dante.

He made a choice.

"Mundus!" He cried out. Mundus stopped and, slowly, turned around.

"_Vergil."_ He said, showing no indication that he was surprised. _"You have witnessed my undeniable power."_ He gestured at Dante's body. _"Kneel before me and I shall spare your life."_

A column of pure rage swelled up from deep within Vergil. All his life he had sought power … the power to set things right with the world. And what had resulted from his blind ambition? His father was long dead. His mother murdered by the same foul creature that had just slain his brother. The same monster that had twisted his mind and forced him to kill Trish and that red haired woman.

"_Vergil …"_

Literally shaking with anger, Vergil stepped boldly forward and brandished his gloved fists.

"Now you've really crossed the line." He said, and attacked.

As he approached at top speed, Mundus lashed out with a right hook, from which sprung a fiery red energy blade. Vergil ducked under this and kicked out as his knee. He dodged a second energy blade and unloaded a flurry of punches into Mundus' side. Mundus roared and flexed his arms, unleashing a blinding explosion of light in all directions.

But Vergil wasn't there. He disappeared before the explosion connected, appearing a second later above Mundus, his foot extended and driving in a kick towards his head. It connected and he used the force to push away, then dive down with another kick.

Mundus swept out with an energy blade of such intensity it would have severed Vergil in half mid-air. Righteous fury coursing through his veins however, the son of Sparda merely leaned back to avoid it, landed in a handstand, flipped up and somersaulted towards his foe. Mundus tried grab him as he sailed closer, but Vergil snapped out with each hand and grasped his wrists, holding them in place as he vented his anger in an explosion of rapid kicks repeatedly into Mundus' chest and face.

"_I'll crush you like a bug!"_ He screamed in rage, slamming his hands together with the intent of crushing the half-devil between them. Vergil released his hold a split second before and leapt up, as Mundus' fists crashed together with a resounding Thud. He landed on the Devil Kings clasped hands and drove a charged punch straight into the side of his head, before cartwheeling off.

The tempo of the fight picked up, Mundus becoming a blur of speed as he punched and slashed at the agile nuisance that hounded him. Vergil somehow remained faster, each blow that was aimed at him instead finding only a faded after image that hung in the air. He dodged and kicked, swerved and punched, leapt and hammered.

Finally, after almost a full minute of relentless pounding he had Mundus down on one knee. He grabbed his left horn and twisted it violently, jerking the Dark Emperors head back. In a dazzling burst of speed he flicked the wrist of his left hand, causing a phantom blade to materialise in his grasp, which he thrust unerringly right at Mundus' central eye.

It stopped, the tip less than a millimetre from piercing its intended target. Mundus gripped Vergil's left arm with unyielding strength. Vergil gnashed his teeth together, narrowed his own eyes to slits and nearly screamed from the pain as he fought to push the glimmering and deadly blade just that tiny bit more.

Suddenly, Mundus' right arm shot across and struck him. In a flicker of movement that was too fast even for Vergil to follow, Mundus twisted the phantom blade from his hand and jammed it clean through Vergil's throat. It took a shocked second for him to realise what had happened. He opened his mouth to shout a denial, but only blood came forth. Blood and more blood.

"_Not this time."_ Said Mundus, his ghastly expression twisting into a rictus grin that chilled Vergil to the core. Vergil, choking on his own blood from the wound in his neck, could only watch on and splutter as Mundus stood and gripped his shoulder painfully. _"The one and only power that could defeat me is now mine … FOREVER!"_

And with that final epitaph, he twisted and hurled Vergil over the edge of the pillar, far, far over this time, sending him plummeting towards the lava hundreds of feet below. Vergil fell in silence, his own phantom blade still jammed in his throat.

Mundus threw his head back and laughed, an utterly inhuman sound. The laughter of the Devil echoed out for miles around, spreading like the very darkness in the heavens above him.

---

Lady staggered to her feet and cast a wary glance over at Arkham's still body. She'd like to see him try and come back now, without a head this time.

Sighing heavily, she retrieved her guns and reloaded them in silence. As she did so, she heard a sound … like a terrible wailing, shrieking. One might almost say a laugh, as if heard from the very deepest and blackest ocean.

As it faded, she frowned and glanced around, wondering what had caused it. As she lowered her head, she saw a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye. She jerked around, aiming the pistol in her hands.

Half a dozen feet away, the scarred and smoking body of Arkham twitched.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! The shots erupted from her weapon, tearing chunks from the twitching body. It lay still for a moment, then twitched again. Lady fired, and fired until her weapon clicked empty.

"Sssssssshhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

She clapped her hands over her ears to block out the head-splitting sound, but her eyes remained wide and open. With only a shredded stump for a head and riddled with over a dozen bullet holes, Arkham's body slowly rose up, as if lifted on strings. Wincing from the continued shrieking, Lady hastily reloaded and continued firing, but the bullets had no effect.

Arkham's black suit melted into a slick, oil like substance that spread, covering every inch of his body. When it reached the mess that had been his head, it curled into the shape of a skull, dripping with black ichor. Lady watched on, horror struck, as his abdomen exploded outwards, his legs splitting apart into a dozen separate tendrils.

She backed away from the monstrosity as it began to take form, the black liquid hardening into a spiky and chitinous armour. It had the upper body of a man, albeit covered in black armour. Its lower body was that of a giant spider, like a black widow or similar. A jet black scorpion tail reared up behind it, as its arms – now shaped like wicked looking pincers – snapped in anticipation.

"Mmmmaaaaaarrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy!" The thing wailed. Lady stumbled and fell, staring at the twisted and bloated black face that bore only a passing resemblance to the Arkham she knew. As she sat there, pop-eyed, the thing sprang forward on its many skittering legs, the whole thing nearly eight or nine feet in height now.

Lady rolled away as the tail crashed through the obsidian floor where she had just sat. She rolled again as pincers snapped at her frail flesh, then back flipped from the floor and pulled out her machine pistol, firing point blank into the things chest.

The bullets ricocheted off its hardened skin, one of them nicking her thigh. The Arkham-Monster leaned in towards her and pushed its skull-like head close to hers. The smell was over powering, and she nearly fainted there and then. It opened its jaw and several glistening mandibles extended, twitching.

Lady wrinkled her nose and jammed the barrel of the machine pistol into its mouth, firing. The creature shrieked and yanked back, skittering away.  
"Just die, you bastard!" She shouted at it, fear and disgust rapidly replaced with anger and loathing. The monster stopped and lowered its head. Its pincers snapped, tail flicked, and the thing charged straight at her …


	25. Chapter 25

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**

_PART XXV_

The echoes of laughter faded away. The darkness of the portal continued to spread, and soon, once he joined his power with Avernus, it would engulf the entire planet. Earth would belong once again to the demons and he would rule supreme over all-

He stopped his internal monologue and turned, hearing a sound from behind. Mundus was not one who was often surprised, having lived for countless millennia and having a mind far superior to any mere human. Still, there were instances, such as these, that he was forced to admit to himself that he hadn't foreseen.

Dante stood defiant, glaring at him.

He was a wreck, for sure. Even as the waves of fury washed off of him, Mundus could see that he was swaying as he stood, fighting with what could only be pure willpower to remain on his feet. His chest was a bloodied mess, his clothes and hair drenched, eyes bloodshot, veins standing out.

"_Wretched offspring of that accursed Sparda."_ Mundus muttered. _"You must be taught how to die properly … just as your mother had to be taught."_

"Take your best shot." Said Dante, trembling, from anger, exhaustion, pain or a mixture of all of the above.

Mundus reared back and lowered his horned head. His three red eyes suddenly burned white. There was an inrush of something indescribable, as if he was drawing in more than mere air. The very atmosphere became charged as excess energy bled off from his towering, dark form.

And then he unleashed it – a beam of intense negative energy, its destructive potential so tremendous that it could be felt by all things attuned to the demonic world. Everywhere, demons in their thousands stopped and glanced around. In the bowels of Avernus where Lady fought for her life, the monstrously deformed Arkham paused from an attempt to disembowel her, and was rewards with a flurry of crushing blows from Agni & Rudra. Hundreds of feet below, tumbling towards the lava, Vergil yanked his own Phantom Blade from his neck and jammed it into the smooth wall of a building as it shot past. As he hung limply, blood still pumping from his fresh wound, he turned his head upwards as he felt the wave of destructive essence wash over him.

This terrible blast of negative power tore towards Dante with unstoppable fury and momentum.

He calmly raised his hand, as if gesturing for it to stop, and executed an Ultimate Guard. A wall of glowing white symbols materialised in the air around his extended hand, twisting and writhing, their power warping reality. The beam of negative energy struck this with a crackling impact that went beyond sight and sound, and at once the Ultimate guard channelled its awesome force into Dante, healing his wounds, which closed and vanished as if by magic … which was in fact what it was.

As the beam continued to pump into the star bright sigils emanating from his hand, he felt the negative power course through his veins, setting them alight with unnatural fire. The power welled up inside him, overflowing. A feeling indescribable. Mundus reinforced the beam in an effort to break the guard, not realising that the more power he unleashed upon his 'victim', the stronger Dante became.

The wellspring of negative energy exploded inside of him. The entire summit of the pillar was enveloped in a flash of light as intense as that of a nuclear blast, which could be seen for countless miles around. Staring upwards at this, Vergil turned away and had to shield his eyes from the glare, too bright for even him to bear.

As the light subsided, Mundus staggered back, visibly drained. He glanced up and saw Dante. Or at least, what had been Dante.

As the power coursing and writhing through him had reached a peak, the son of Sparda had unleashed the devil inside of him, entering a Devil Trigger state fuelled with pure negative energy.

He floated serenely in the air, something halfway between an angel and a devil. Black feathered wings beat the air in a slow, shimmering fashion. Smooth, organic armour covered his body, flickering in a state between light and dark, as did his now waist length hair, which floated about him as if blown by some ethereal breeze. The white marble of his face looked serene and peaceful … until his eyes flicked open. No longer simple organs to see the world with, Mundus found himself gazing into two round pits that were like black holes … gaps in reality itself.

"**Sword."** Said Dante. The Rebellion instantly sprang from the ground and shot into his waiting grasp. As his hands – armoured in strange organic gauntlets – grasped the hilt of the sword, bolts of negative lightning coursed the length of the blade.

"_Impossible."_ Protested Mundus, in clear defiance of the obvious facts. He snatched the Sparda sword from across his back, spread his four black wings and soared high into the air.

Dante flexed his own wings and sailed gracefully up after him. The two opponents came to a stop deep amidst a sky of darkness – halfway between earth and the underworld. They faced off, swords held ready before them.

"_You cannot win."_ Said Mundus, whether out of confidence or to assure himself was uncertain. Wings beating at the blackness, surrounded by a halo of negative light, Dante tilted his head upwards slightly.

"**I cannot lose."**

Mundus attacked, hurling the sword in its scythe form at him whilst simultaneously summoning dozens of orbs around Dante, each of which began spewing thousands and thousands of energy darts at him.

Dante hurled his own sword, the blade spinning through what passed as air where they now fought. It snicked past the Sparda sword as it was mid-way towards him, before carrying on towards Mundus. Dante dived through the hail of darts and grasped the hilt of the Sparda sword. Using its spinning momentum, he swung himself around and around, using the curved scythe blade to cut the orbs to shreds, before hurling it far away in the opposite direction.

Twin energy blades sprang forth from Mundus' wrists and deflected the Rebellion away. As the blades retracted, Mundus hurled a plethora of enormous fireballs at Dante. Dante caught the first in his outstretched grasp. As each fireball homed in on him, he swerved the one he held in its direction so that they all bunched up into a single gigantic sphere of burning flames.

Then he pressed his hands together and snuffed it out.

"_I will never bow before a human!"_ Mundus raged, diving at him.

"**Don't talk. Just die."**

As Mundus fell upon him, energy blades slashing, Dante twisted and swerved, dodging each attack with contemptible ease. As the blades intersected, Dante swept a hand up and turned the devastating attack aside, before following up with a blow to the chest that sent Mundus tumbling away through the blackness.

With a gesture the Rebellion appeared in his hand, and less than an instant later he was on Mundus, slashing at him with attacks that crackled with negative energy. Mundus righted himself and blocked. Just as the Rebellion twisted around and connected, Mundus vanished.

He reappeared some distance away, glowering down at him from above. As Dante looked up, he saw the Dark Emperor gesture wildly with his great, clawed hands. _"I will show you the true power of a God!"_ He declared. The black abyss that surrounded them exploded into a shower of lightning bolts, all of which arced towards Dante.

"**False God."** Said Dante. He spread his arms and a jewel at the centre of his armour glowed. The storm of lightning bolts immediately shifted direction and arced towards it, drawn like moths to a flame, like a needle to a magnet. When the last of it had been absorbed, Dante sheathed his sword and thrust his hands forward, unleashing the pent up power, now further imbued with his own negative essence.

A titanic dragon composed of pure white fire erupted from his hands and tore through the abyss towards Mundus. His attacks against it were futile, and it slammed into him, engulfing him in a halo of destruction. As he recoiled from the attack, Dante appeared before him, his pearly white face inches away from Mundus' ghastly visage.

As Mundus snarled and tried to sweep majestically away, he realised that he was stuck fast. He looked down and saw the Rebellion.

The sword had pierced through his chest, the blade protruding out through his back. Mundus gaped at it, as if seeing something utterly incomprehensible. Finally, in a movement that seemed to last an aeon, he looked up and stared into the dark pits of Dante's empty eyes … and saw no mercy there. Only despair, and his own demise, as unthinkable as it was.

Dante twisted the blade, his face a grim mask of satisfaction.

"**Dead false God."**


	26. Chapter 26

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**  
_PART XXVI_

"Mmaaaarrrryyyyy dddiiiieeeeee!" shrieked the thing, charging and snapping at her with its spiked pincers. Brandishing Agni & Rudra, Lady leapt up and used its pincer claws as stepping stones, before stomping with a little more force than strictly necessary on its head as she landed on the back of its lower, spider body.

The scorpion tail immediately thrust at her, but was barred by the serrated blade of Agni. With a powerful gust of wind, Rudra slashed across and severed the tip of the tail clean off at one of the joins. Almost at once, a thick black liquid sprayed out from the wound, droplets covering her arms and face and staining her shirt. A hissing filled the air, and to her horror she realised that whatever this creature was using for blood seemed to be corrosive.

Grinding her teeth as she felt the droplets begin to burn her flesh, she hurled herself from the things back, rolled to her feet and pulled at her shirt frantically. She finally wriggled free and tossed it away – happily none of the repulsive stuff had seeped through to her vest. As she brushed the worst of it from her face and arms, the Arkham/Chimera was writhing and shrieking from the wound she had inflicted. Too damn bad, she thought. She mentally kicked herself for not using Agni to deliver the blow – the fire blade would probably have cauterised the wound.

"Now you're really pissing me off!" she snarled at it, tightening the grip on her scimitars. Angered by the loss of an appendage (Which had now clotted so that no more of its foul blood was spurting out) the monster barrelled at her with an insane burst of speed, far faster than she had seen it move before. Only reflexes born from years of demon hunting allowed her to duck before a giant clawed hand rammed itself at her head.

As she pulled away, she felt something sprinkle her back and arms. Whipping around and pulling back, she realised to her relief it was not more blood. The thing had jammed its pincer into one of the crystal pillars, shards of which had showered her. As she stared at it, she realised however that something else was happening.

The sickly, pulsing energy that throbbed through the crystal seemed to vent out from the hole the thing had bored with its claw. Massive bolts of violet lightning arced out and zapped the monster, and soon it was smoking and scorched. Simpering frightfully, it managed to yank its pincer free and skitter back. It hissed and turned to glare at her, its chitinous hide pockmarked with smouldering burns.

"You want me, you dumb oversized bug?" Lady goaded, twirling the scimitars and ramming the blades into the ground, lodging them there as she stood and waved at the thing enticingly. "Come get some."

It barrelled at her full tilt, and she turned and ran, legs pumping furiously. She led it halfway across the chamber, then ran straight at the largest of the glowing crystal pillars. She could hear the rapid clicks of its spidery legs on the obsidian floor, drawing close. Too close. She could almost feel the jagged, snapping claws reaching out for her neck, as if to snip her head from her shoulders …

She didn't slow when she reached the pillar, but kept on running; sprinting up the smooth vertical surface, legs and arms blurring with movement, just as she had practiced during some of her training sessions with Dante months ago. Back then, she'd never been able to pull it off – running up a sheer wall the way he could. He had made it look so easy, and Lady was quite the athlete, even on a bad day. Try as she might though, this particular Matrix move had always eluded her skills.

With a giant mutated demon monster from hell snapping at her heels however, she could have scaled Everest in record time. Her perspective briefly tilted 90 degrees as the crystal structure suddenly became the floor for her. She felt gravity start to pay attention and get back to work, and kicked off, sailing backwards, feet arcing gracefully through the air, head staring down at the bloated body of her pursuer, a bemused expression on what passed for its face. Time slowed to a crawl.

As the thing did a double take and tried to avoid slamming into the pulsing crystal again, Lady whipped out her machine pistol and opened fire. The weapon spat a juddering frenzy of bullets – aimed not at her opponent but at the crystal by its head, which shattered from the hail of gunfire and ejected violent and massive bolts of lightning.

As she landed on her feet behind it, she kept firing, her shots ripping more and more chunks from the arcane device, enveloping Arkham in a crackling cloud of power that cooked the demon flesh right through its armoured hide. The weapon clicked empty and, still fuelled by an overdose of adrenalin, fear and exhaustion, Lady hurled the spent weapon at the charred creature and stomped her feet like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Arkham die!" she screamed at the thing as it sank to the floor. It lay in a smoking, seared heap, twitching occasionally, but with the look of a meal that had been left for altogether too long in the microwave.

Lady stared at it numbly. Was it over? She doubted it. This was one miserable SOB that had never learned how to properly kick the proverbial bucket. She stared at it a while longer, barely aware of her surroundings save for the gentle Clink of crystal fragments that occasionally fell from the shredded pillar.

When her brain had finally caught up with the present, having been lagging several minutes behind events, Lady found herself walking over to where she had buried the blades of her swords in the ground. Funny, the way she thought of them as 'her' swords. They were really Dante's after all, but as she yanked them free and examined them, demonic in origin they may have been, she felt … what? She wasn't sure. But her favourite weapon, the Kalina-Ann that Lady had built herself and named after her mother, was gone. These two swords seemed to be filling the gap, she felt.

Lady was a Demon Hunter, and weapons were the tools of her trade. She smiled as she hefted these tools, and staggered over to the now unmoving pile of black spikes and cracked chitin. Lady stood over the thing that had laughingly at one time been her father, loathe though she was to even entertain the thought. Its mouth hung open, as did its blank, staring eyes, a thin pool of ooze dripping from what passed as lips.

Wrinkling her nose again at the smell which nearly had a life of its own, she raised the twin blades and prepared to slice the head from the body. Tired though she was, she intended to cut this _thing_ into lots of pieces and hurl each and every one into the lava outside. Only then would she be satisfied it was over.

"This is the end of the line for you." She muttered, and swung.

There was a sensation of movement as it exploded into action. Lady barely had time to acknowledge it before everything slammed to a halt.

"IIIIII tthhiiiiinnnkk nnooottttt!"

Lady gaped at the thing, lost for words. She glanced down when parts of her body waved for attention, and soon saw why.

Arkham had driven the scorched but intact remains of its right claw clean through her abdomen. She stared at this, and then glanced up at him, or it.

"You … sod." She mumbled.

As she tried to raise Agni & Rudra, which she had somehow kept hold of, Arkham slavered disgustingly and wrenched his huge spiked pincer up, lifting her into the air and further mincing her already messed up insides. Lady threw back her head and screamed, the pain at last hitting her like a brick wall. The Arkham thing hissed appreciatively, evidently revelling in her agony.

As her mind began to numb and black out, something deep inside of her sparked. A tiny flame which started off small in the back of her head, and then exploded into an inferno. Lady stopped screaming and whipped her head up, fixing her horrific father with the single most baleful, despised and hate filled glare she had ever given, so intense that even its warped mind understood something was wrong.

"I will _never_ die until you are finished." She hissed through clenched and blood soaked teeth. _"FOR GOOD!"_

She swung Agni & Rudra with all the pent up fury, anguish and hatred of a lifetime, the serrated blades ripping Arkham's head right from his black shoulders, which Thunked to the floor. It and its entire body seemed to melt into a thick black oil, and as it lost form, Lady fell to the floor, the swords clattering away. Within seconds all that remained of the creature was a congealing pile of darkness, which rapidly evaporated into nothing.

Lady screwed up her eyes as fresh waves of pain swept through her. She coughed and felt the warm sensation of blood welling up in her mouth. This was it, her ragged thoughts informed her. You're not getting out this one now. All finished. Your one way ticket out of here. End of the Line.

She forced open her eyes, which were brimming with tears. The pedestal. Her spell. Her useless spell that hadn't worked. In the end, her plan had come to nothing. She had failed Dante and Vergil, and most likely doomed them both to the same fate she herself had now met.

Her brow furrowed. For some reason, she felt she still had something to do. She didn't know what, or why, or even how she knew this. But she … she had to reach it somehow. The pedestal.

Her hand reached out and pressed down. Fingers curled up and dug into the ground, pulling her forward. She tried to kick with her legs, but she had no feeling in them and couldn't tell if they were moving or not. So she reached out with her other hand, eyes screwing up from the shock of pain that filled her as she dragged herself onwards.

The white pedestal glowed ahead of her, like some distant beacon, bathed in pure white light. Lady fixated all of her mind on it, her vision tunnelling down to just that light. She bit her teeth together, the scream escaping between them all the same.

Onwards she went, dragging herself forever onwards. It would have been so easy to stop. Lie down. Go to sleep. She felt so tired, and it hurt so much. Voices whispered in her head, telling her it was ok, she could rest now. She ignored them. Something deep inside her made her go on. Even when she couldn't stand it any more, even when the lids of her eyes felt like they weighed more than she could take, she dragged herself on.

At last, she pulled herself up onto the wide pedestal, her bloody hands leaving large red prints as she dragged herself further. When she reached the centre she stopped and, somehow, turned over onto her back. And found herself staring up into the ceiling ... but she didn't see it. Her eyes were looking somewhere else. She felt the last of her life leak out of her, like the final few grains of sand falling into the bottom of an hourglass. This was it. The End.

Around her, the white pedestal began to turn red as her blood flowed from her wound and filled it up.

"I'm outta here …" her final breath escaped from her lips.


	27. Chapter 27

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**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**  
_PART XXVII_

Atop the pillar of Avernus, blue flames flared brightly for an instant and then faded. Absent-mindedly rubbing his scarred throat, Vergil strolled forward. There was no sign of Dante's body, nor of Mundus, gloating in triumph.

There was a whistling sound from above. Vergil stopped and craned his neck up, staring at the black sky. At first glance it appeared to be the same endless rolling abyss as before, but as he squinted he could just make out tiny distant flashes of light. As he was pondering over this, the whistling noise grew louder. He just had time to make out a glint reflecting off a metal blade, and hurriedly stepped back.

The Sparda sword sailed past him mere inches from his nose and imbedded itself in the ground.

Vergil stared at it and wondered how it had got there. Where was Dante? Where was Mundus? He looked up at the distant flashes of light … surely not?

Either way, standing around mulling over things wasn't going to accomplish anything. He frowned and reached out, grasping the hilt of the sword and tugging it from the ground. Or at least, trying to. Frowning deeper, he pulled and then yanked at it with both hands, but the sword remained buried deep in the decorative metal floor.

"Well you're not going anywhere fast." He muttered, releasing his grip and narrowing his eyes in irritance. Something was definitely going on, Mundus wouldn't have just 'dropped' the sword that was the source of his power. He stepped back and stared up at the sky again.

There was a brilliant glow from high above that seemed to light up the darkness for a moment, then it was gone. As Vergil continued to watch, he spotted movement. Something else was falling.

A single drop of blood descended from the abyss and landed upon the hilt of the Sparda sword. There was a sudden explosion of black and red lightning from the weapon, which turned white and surged down the length of the blade. Vergil hurriedly backed off, as the energy vented into the ground and expanded, covering the entire surface of the pillar in a heartbeat.

He rushed to the edge and looked down, in time to see the energy wave sink down through the pillar, turning the red veins of light a brilliant blue-white. As it descended, an identical wave swept up from the depths of the fortress. When the two connected mid-way, time stopped.

The world exploded.

All right, not exactly, but that's what it seemed like. Vergil felt the same intense shockwave he had felt earlier, when the spell had kicked in, but far greater this time. His vision became filled with the bright light, ears ringing from a sound that blanketed all other sounds, skin crackling as if from a million pins and needles. He felt like he was floating in nothingness … for how long he couldn't say.

And then it was over. Vergil blinked rapidly and shook his head, dislodging the strange fuzzy feeling that had set up shop in his mind. When he could see properly again, he looked up and saw to his surprise that the impenetrable darkness that filled the sky was gone. He could see the twinkle of distant stars and the light of the moon reflecting calmly across the surface of clouds that gently sailed past.

"The spell worked," he observed to himself. "Something must have triggered it again. Something stronger than before."

He heard a groan behind him and turned. Dante was slowly pushing himself up from the floor. He looked normal, the horrific wounds Mundus had inflicted gone.

"Dante." Vergil hurried over to him, his usual self-discipline and iron control gone for a moment. "You're alive!" He reached down and helped him up. Dante groaned again and glanced at him.

"I feel like hell." He said.

"You don't look much better."

Dante snorted. "You're one to talk. What happened to your neck? Love bite?"

Vergil sneered and shoved his brother away, his usual guarded nature returning. "Why am I not surprised that you were able to somehow save the day again? You have an insufferable habit of playing the hero."

Dante opened his mouth to snap off a witty comeback, but was interrupted by the sound of laughter. As one they turned and realised for the first time that there was someone else atop the pillar with them.

"_How touchingly pathetic."_ said Mundus. Dante gaped at him. No longer did he look like the demonic figure of Sparda. The face the twins found themselves staring at could have passed for their own, save for the insanely evil expression that bored into them with palpable hatred. This must have been what their father looked like after he had sacrificed his power to seal away the demon world. This was the man that their mother had known and fallen in love with.

No. It was his shape and his form, but it wasn't him.

Mundus brushed some imaginary dirt from his rich, aristocratic clothes, his expression of anger and loathing changing to one of mild annoyance. Vergil reached for the hilt of his sword whilst Dante merely placed his hands on his hips.

"Are you _still_ not dead?" he asked in an exasperated tone. Mundus scowled at him.

"_A minor setback." _He strolled forward, showing them complete indifference as he reached for the Sparda sword.

BLAM!

He stopped and frowned. Staring down, Mundus saw two dark, round holes in his chest, rivulets of blood pouring from them. He glanced up, and found himself staring down the smoking barrels of Luce and Ivory.

"_You would shoot your own father?"_ he asked, smirking at them. Standing side by side, Dante and Vergil each took a bold step forward.

"You may have his body," Said Vergil.

"But you'll _never_ have his soul." Finished Dante.

They fired again and again, bullets ripping into Mundus and driving him back. He staggered and threw up a hand that was gloved in white. They ceased firing as he fixed his furious eyes upon Vergil.

"_I am your master. I command you to cease this foolishness at once!"_

"I serve no one!" Vergil shouted, striding forward and firing again, the bullets tearing into Mundus' rich clothing and spraying blood from a dozen different wounds. When he let up, Mundus turned and fixed his smouldering glare upon Dante.

"_You are nothing but a mongrel half breed. You shall pay for your defiance. You will die, kicking and screaming like your whore of a mother."_

"And _YOU_ will shut up and die!" Shouted Dante, advancing to where his brother now stood, spitting bullets from Ivory and occasionally aiming a little low.

They lowered their weapons as Mundus stood teetering on the edge of the circle, drenched in blood and countless bullet holes. He fought for balance and managed to remain standing. Breathing heavily, head sunk low, he tightened his blood splattered hands into fists and, trembling in rage, raised his head and screamed at them – an utterly terrible and inhuman sound that could only have come from the depths of a true monster.

Dante cocked his head. "Hell hath no fury-"

"Like the Sons of Sparda." Said Vergil.

Together, they raised their pistols and stood back to back, bolts of energy coursing down their arms and into their weapons.

"JACKPOT!" they said in unison, and fired.

The twin charged shots streaked towards Mundus, whose eyes widened in fear – a feeling he had never experienced once in the millennia of his existence. They slammed into him and picked him up, hurling him far up into the air and over the edge. Screaming that terrible scream, he plummeted towards the lava below.

Dante and Vergil watched until they saw his falling form hit the boiling lake of fire. There was a tremendous explosion that kicked up a great stream of lava high into the air. A shockwave spread out and washed over them, even from their lofty perch atop the grand pillar.

And then it was gone. The lava bubbled and settled back down, smooth as glowing gold. It was done. Mundus, trapped in the body of a mortal and without any power, was dead.

Dante sighed and glanced across at Vergil. "You know I'm surprised."

"Why?"

"Well I kind of expected some famous last words from him. I mean he is like the _main_ villain of all time, isn't he?"

"Are you actually complaining because he didn't snap off some cheesy one liner?"

Dante shrugged. "Well it's all about style, isn't it? I mean how about _'I'll be back!'_ or _'Rosebud'_ or something? All he did was scream like a girl!"

Vergil stared at his brother for a second, rolled his eyes and walked away.


	28. Chapter 28

Part 28 here. I realise this fic is getting a bit long in the tooth now, but I can assure readers that it will finally end with Part 30 - a nice round figure that looks especially fitting for the chapter numerals as I get to do XXX, Lol! Thanks to everyone who reviews, your support keeps me going and has even convinced me to think about doing another DMC fic. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy!

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**  
_PART XXVIII_

As Vergil approached the Sparda sword - still imbedded in the floor - he paused, hand outstretched to grasp the hilt once again.

Behind him, something went 'Click'.

He sighed and withdrew his hand, turning to face his frowning brother who had Ivory trained on him.  
"What do you think you're doing?" Dante asked him. Vergil cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.  
"Me? I'm claiming my payment for helping to defeat Mundus. Fathers sword – I want it."  
"That is just _not_ gonna happen bro."  
Vergil snorted. "Really. And what did you expect? That after all was said and done I would come back with you to work in that poky little office of yours? Battling demons like some kind of underpaid unappreciated hero?"

Dante eased the hammer of his pistol and holstered it, shaking his head sadly. "I guess not." He said. "But maybe a part of me figured you had changed after all of these years. I started to hope you had given up this obsession with power."

"Well then perhaps you don't understand me as much as you thought you did." Said Vergil coldly, pacing around his brother, like a predator stalking its prey.

Dante stared at him blankly for a moment. Then a flicker of anger washed over his features and he gestured wildly behind him, towards the edge of the pillar. "That sword has caused nothing but trouble ever since our father died. You and I both know the smartest thing to do would be to take it and hurl it as deep into the lava as we can."

Vergil stopped pacing and stared at him as if he had just suggested that they both dive in headfirst themselves. "Are you mad, or just plain simple? I always suspected you had been dropped on your head as a child, and yet I cant believe even _you_ would insist on destroying not only an object of such immense power – but our fathers own legacy!" Vergil spun angrily and jabbed a pointed finger at the weapon in question. "That sword was his life! His soul! We just destroyed his body, and you would have me erase the last trace of the Legendary Dark Knight from this world?"

"Dammit Vergil! Sparda's legacy isn't some silly magical weapon -" he ignored Vergil's scoff of protest and continued. "Its not our powers or even our race that defines who we are, its our deeds! It's the fact that our father _chose_ to sacrifice his 'great' power for the benefit of all mankind! That's why he rebelled in the first place! Not to overthrow Mundus and rule in his place – he did it because he wanted to help humans, to protect them because they couldn't protect themselves. What makes him renowned throughout the world is his actions! His decision to turn his back on his own kind because he realised they were evil, and to stand up for those too weak to stand up for themselves!"

Vergil whirled back to face him, clenching his hands into fists and thrusting them forwards. "Exactly! Humanity is weak! And in this world, is it not always survival of the fittest? The strong survive and give life to stronger and better future generations, whilst the weak die out! And rightly so! Weakness cannot be tolerated! It will not further anything of benefit, and so it serves no purpose other than to die out and step aside for those with the strength to build a better future!" He was shaking his fists in anger from his conviction, and stopped when he realised what he was doing, lowering his hands to his side.

Dante shook his head. "That's where you are wrong. Humanity is strong, just in a different way. They evolved to become something more than simple animals. They became intelligent, adaptive, and resourceful. Tell me this Vergil, if humans are such pathetic creatures, as you seem to think, why are they the dominant race on this world? And why is it that a mere human like Lady can defeat countless demons many times stronger than her?"

Vergil had no answer, and simply scowled as Dante went on. "Because they are better than you think, that's why. They – _we_ – have faced everything from wars, famines, plagues, natural disasters and even invasions from hell. And still humans are thriving. No Vergil, your excuses aren't going to cut it any more."

"Excuses?" Vergil snapped.

"Why don't you just admit it? You want power for yourself. You want control, you want to lord it over everyone you see as inferior to yourself. Fact is bro, you have always and only ever wanted power for one thing – to fuel your oversized and abnormally large ego!" Dante spat.

An uneasy silence descended between the two. The fragile alliance they had briefly enjoyed was over now. Age-old feuds and grudges resurfaced, boiling up and stoking the fires of hatred and jealousy that had burned between the two rival siblings. They were equal opposites, just like the pistols they carried. One light, the other dark. Each a twisted reflection of the other.

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Vergil said at last, breaking the silence. "I will take what I want, and the only way you are going to stop me is by killing me."

"Then that's what I'll do." Said Dante. Icicles could have formed from his words if they hadn't been standing in such a hot, volcanic region.

Vergil lifted his chin slightly and nodded. "Very well then, _brother_. Let us settle this once and for all. One final battle to decide which of us is right. Winner takes all."

Dante cracked his knuckles without breaking eye contact with his twin. "Right. But this _will_ be the last fight between us. No more time outs, no more escaping to lick your wounds and fight another day. We end it right here, right now."

"As you wish." Said Vergil, stripping off his long dark green coat and tossing it away. He looped the sash of the Yamato's scabbard to his belt and stood tall, arms crossed casually, appearing at ease save for his taught jaw.

Dante pulled off his own red jacket, tossing it away as well before slipping his weapon holster over his waistcoat. He stretched, muscles flexing, and punched his fists together almost playfully. In his minds eye, memories of old sparring matches between them rose unbidden, swiftly replaced by later memories of real battles they had fought against one another. Temen-ni-gru … Mallet Island. Sometimes Vergil won, sometimes Dante did. Always, they had wondered which of them – so evenly matched – was the best.

Now it seemed, after all these years, they would at last have that answer.


	29. Chapter 29

Here it is - the penultimate chapter! Warning - it is the largest chapter in this entire fanfic, easily twice the length of any previous chapter. But this is the final fight for this entire story, and I wanted it to go out with a bang. You have been warned! 

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**  
_PART XXIX_

As the two demon warriors faced off, the ground shook beneath them and the great pillar they stood upon began to contract, lowering itself back down towards the fortress of Avernus. They paid this no attention, each standing tall, neither moving a muscle.

And then it began. In less than the blink of an eye each had a pistol in hand and began firing at the other. Vergil twisted aside, presenting his profile and minimising the size of target Dante had to hit. As he returned fire, Dante dropped to the ground and rolled away, came up, fired, dropped and rolled again.

This pattern continued for several seconds, Vergil occasionally ducking or twisting to avoid the gunfire directed at him. Finally Dante rolled towards him, came up and fired it at Vergil's face. At the same instant, Vergil's free hand came across and swatted the barrel to the side, causing the shot to merely graze his cheek. Dante responded by pulling his other pistol out and raising it to Vergil's chest. Vergil slammed the barrel of his pistol down and to the side, forcing this attack away as well.

His knee lashed out and connected with Dante's gut. As the red devil folded, Vergil stepped back and spun around full circle, whirling Ombra around and firing it at Dante's head. Dante however kept folding over, anticipating this. He dropped into a ball and barrelled into his brothers' legs, knocking him from his feet. From a prone position on the ground, Vergil was forced to cross his arms in order to catch Dante's thrusting aim. He followed with an upward kick, knocking Dante away and providing him with momentum to return to his feet.

"Not bad." Dante conceded, holstering the guns. Vergil did the same, walking calmly and casually away from him. The shaking beneath them stopped as the pillar finished its descent, bringing it level with the roof of several adjacent structures.

They eyed each other warily for a moment. Then the moment passed and they charged. As they did so, their hands glowed as their demonic gauntlets were summoned. Just as the gloves materialised they met, each driving a sucker punch at the other. Both blows connected with titanic force, and the twin fighters were thrown back away from each other like rag dolls.

Dante fell between the towering buildings that made up the fortress, landing painfully on his shoulder in a dark alleyway. As friction burned into him and slowed his skid across smooth stonework, he twirled his legs around in a circular motion that lifted him up onto his feet.

"Damn." He muttered, rubbing his jaw and wincing. His face was taking quite a beating today he mused. Glancing up, he focused his attention on the sloping roof of a curved building to his right and leapt up towards it. Landing upon his target in a single swift bound, his pistols were out and scanning the rooftops for sign of his opponent.

But of Vergil there was no sign.

"Crap, where'd he go?" he said, spinning around to try and catch a glimpse of his brother.

Vergil's punch caught him in the midriff, sending him sprawling across the sloping roof, his guns flying from the grasp of his Ifrit gauntlets and sailing away into the darkness. Sneering disdainfully, Vergil stalked over to his brother and drove the clawed Beowulf greave at his throat, intending to crush it.

"I don't think so." Dante chirped, smiling. He caught Vergil's foot and lashed out with his own, taking Vergil down onto one knee. "My turn." He said, driving a fiery palm into Vergil's gut and hurling him back. Dante flipped up to his feet and jumped straight into the air, sailing over the fuselage of bullets that were fired from Luce and Ombra, engulfed in a Rolling Blaze of fire. He landed on his feet standing over Vergil and immediately leaned forwards and grabbed his wrists, slamming them together and forcing Vergil to drop the pistols. Dante released his grip, stepped back and kicked the guns away.

"Sweet dreams." He gloated, reaching up in a blur of movement and slashing down with the Rebellion.

Vergil vanished.

Dante's sword struck the roof with a Clang that jarred his hands. "Scum." He heard the sound above him and leapt back just in time to avoid a Helm Break that would have split his skull in two.

Vergil's back was now neatly presented to him, and he didn't waste the opportunity. He thrust the Rebellion forwards in a Stinger that neatly impaled him. Ignoring the wound, Vergil smacked Dante in the face with a backhander that sent him reeling away, the Rebellion still lodged in his chest.

"You of all people should know it takes more than this to kill a son of Sparda." Said Vergil, almost tutting aloud as he reached around and pulled out Dante's sword. The wound in his chest healed at once as Vergil coolly brandished the Yamato and the Rebellion.

Snarling, Dante thrust his hand forwards and ejected a Meteor fireball from the Ifrit. Vergil deflected it with a swipe of the Yamato. He sprang at once upon Dante, slashing in a frenzied blur of action with the two swords. Dante was forced on the defensive, dodging and blocking the blows with his flame gauntlets.

"I want my sword back you cheapskate!" He shouted as he spotted an opening in the attacks. The best form of defence is offence, Dante recalled, as he slammed a closed fist down on Vergil's knee, buckling it and throwing his balance off. As Vergil stumbled, Dante kicked out and knocked the Yamato from his grasp, then gripped the hilt of his own weapon, yanked it free and spun around in a circular slash aimed at Vergil's neck.

But of course it could never be that easy. His decapitating attack was halted when it connected with the shimmering green of a Phantom Blade grasped in Vergil's hand. A second blade in his other hand was stabbed into Dante's chest. Blood sprayed from the wound as Vergil stood and jammed the first Phantom sword into his shoulder. As Dante staggered back from the attack, Vergil's fists worked in a furious cycle of action, snatching Phantom Blades from thin air and jamming them into Dante like a human pincushion.

Bristling like a glowing green hedgehog, Dante let out a cry of rage and leapt straight up, flames wreathing his body and shedding the magical swords, which rained down on Vergil, the fragments settling on him like green flecks of dandruff. Dante hovered in the air for a split second and then drove his fist downwards, creating an inferno of fire.

"Nice try." Said Vergil, rolling away and snatching up the Yamato. Dante faced him, Rebellion at the ready. He paused for a second, grinned, then turned and ran.

As he reached the edge of the roof, he leapt, a graceful bound that carried him across a great distance, depositing him on a narrow ledge that spanned a river of flowing lava. He turned and waved at his brother. "C'mon wimp!" He taunted, leering down from above.

But Vergil was a master of self-control, and would not be led into making a mistake. He tilted his head to one side and fixed his eyes on a spot upon the ledge just behind his brother. In a flash of blue flames, he was gone, reappearing an instant later upon that very spot, lashing out with the Yamato at the same second.

"Don't get so cocky." Vergil warned him as his blade scraped sparks across Dante's hasty defence. Unperturbed, Dante grinned at him from behind the crossed swords.  
"Are you ready?" he asked, breaking contact before unleashing an onslaught of attacks. Vergil calmly held his ground, blocking and countering, the blades flickering faster than the eye could follow.

The fight led them across the narrow walkway, lava splashing up from below. As Dante tried to Stinger Vergil at close range, he teleported half a dozen feet back, catching Dante off guard. Not one to waste such an opportunity, the Yamato flashed out towards Dante's neck.

Even off guard momentarily, Dante wasn't entirely helpless. Years of experience fighting demons enabled him to swiftly regain his footing and lean back, the razor sharp sword whistling just inches above his face. Knowing Vergil would not let up after just one attack, Dante turned his dodge into a back flip, and another, and another, the bubbling lava flashing past his vision below as he finished with a backwards somersault, putting him a good distance out of Vergil's considerable reach.

"Impressive." Vergil was forced to concede, sheathing his sword.

"One does one's best." Dante returned, scuffing his nails on his waistcoat and staring at them in feigned boredom. Vergil smiled, which was never a good thing. This became self evident as he swiftly drew the Yamato and sliced clean through the narrow walkway they stood upon, cutting it neatly in half. As the whole thing sagged down the middle and began to collapse, Vergil sheathed his sword and teleported to safety, leaving Dante standing around holding the proverbial bag.

"Cheap bastard." Dante cursed as he slid down the falling walkway. He turned and leapt towards the sheer walls of the tower that the walkway had spanned. As his feet connected with solid stone, they worked in frenzy of activity as he ran straight up the sheer vertical surface, grabbed the lip of the tower roof and flipped himself up to safety.

"Predictable." Said Vergil, who had been waiting for him, as had his sword, which made its presence felt by slicing neatly into Dante's flesh, spraying blood in a simmering red arc.

"Gyaaargh!" Dante cried, stumbling away as Vergil pressed on, punching him with the Beowulf, the blows raining down upon his head and chest. Every attempt to counter attack met with a swift slash from the Yamato, leaving a criss-crossing of scars upon Dante.

Finally Vergil lashed out with a kick that knocked the weakened twin onto his back. Another kick knocked the Rebellion out of his reach, and Dante found himself staring up at his towering brother, Yamato poised at mid level, ready to strike the finishing blow.

_Pray that when someone has you at their mercy, they are evil._ Dante recalled words Lady had said to him after one of their sparring matches. _An evil man will pause to tell you how worthless and weak you are. An evil man must gloat and see the look of defeat in his victims eyes before he can kill them._ She had said. _Pray you find yourself at this mans mercy, because a good man? He will simply kill you dead without so much as a word._

"You are indeed strong," said Vergil, thus answering the all-important question. "But not, I think, strong enough. It's a shame it had to end this way Dante. With our combined powers no one would have stood in our way. But you made your choice, brother. You have sown the wind, and now you shall reap the whirlwind."

Dante stared up into his brother's passive expression and smiled slightly. "You know Vergil, for once in your life, you talk too much."

Vergil frowned for a second, and then slashed out. Dante was weak, defenceless, barely able to stay leaning up on his elbows. There was nothing he could do, he was surely a blink away from Death's final embrace.

Or so Vergil had believed. The final deadly blow never connected, because it was stopped by another sword. Vergil's eyes widened, but Dante hadn't even batted an eyelid.  
"What? Who?" Vergil snapped his head around and found himself staring at the grinning features of …

… Dante. Standing there, blocking his blow with the Rebellion, was the exact likeness of Dante, albeit devoid of any injury. And, as information filtered into his shocked mind, Vergil saw that this Dante was slightly darker … as if he was covered in shadows.

The real Dante used this moment to act – for he was not as injured nor as helpless as he had appeared to be. In a flash, he was up, twisting the Yamato in his brother's hands and slashing the blade down across Vergil's arm.

Vergil cried out and spun away, as the shadow Dante calmly tossed the real Dante his own Rebellion. The two Dante's stood side by side, swords at the ready, smiling with intended malice.  
"Meet my _other_ twin, bro." Said Dante, indicating his smiling Doppelganger. "You see, those few seconds you spent gabbing on gave me just enough time to summon him up."

"Simple trickery will not save you Dante." Vergil scowled, as the two Dante's split up, each stalking towards Vergil, one going left and the other right.

"Oh I think you'll find he packs just as much of a punch as I do." Said Dante. "Isn't that right handsome?"  
The shadow Dante nodded and chuckled. "Oh _yes_. And you know what they say; Two heads are better than one."  
"And double the Dante is double the jeopardy." Finished the real Dante.

They leapt to attack, Vergil immediately forced on the defensive. He soon realised that their words were not simply bravado. The Doppelganger was every bit as skilled and powerful as the original. To make matters worse, Vergil discovered something to his horror as he deflected a strike from the real Dante and slashed out at the shadow image – his sword passed clean through it without leaving so much as a mark. He couldn't even hurt it!

"Damn you!" He shouted futilely as they pressed on, cutting, slashing, hacking. He swayed away from one attack, ducked another and lashed out with a foot. Dante raised his own and caught it, then flicked it across and aimed a kick on the inside of his leg. Vergil staggered, blocked a sword swipe from the shadow and leapt between the two, twirling sideways like a tornado, Yamato flickering out aggressively. They simply backed off, waited for him to land and pressed on again.

On they fought, often their combined attacks proving too much, and they landed numerous blows that weakened and slowed Vergil.

The Doppelganger managed to work its way behind him whilst the real Dante distracted Vergil by tossing the Rebellion high into the air. On reflex, Vergil's eyes glanced up briefly at it. This was all the time Dante needed; he drove his fist into his brother's upper chest, sending him sprawling backwards …

… and stumbling across the Doppelgangers back, who had knelt down behind Vergil, and now toppled the devil warrior head over heels. The Yamato twirled out of his grasp and imbedded itself in the roof some distance away.

Dante reached up and caught the Rebellion; he spun it in a circle and struck a pose with it – ever the vain one. Then, humming to himself, he sheathed the sword and strode over to the edge of the tower to join his dark mirror image.

Vergil was clinging by his very fingertips, the curling river of molten lava glowing like liquid gold below him. Occasionally it would Burp, bubbles bursting on the surface and releasing toxic gasses.

"Well well well …" Said Dante, glancing down at Vergil whilst his Doppelganger evaporated.

Virgil's outline flickered, as if he was trying to teleport away, but it wasn't working. Perhaps he had used up too much energy, or was too weak from fighting? Dante didn't know, but it seemed that Vergil was very much in a spot of trouble.

"Really, I should follow Lady's advice and just end this now, without saying anything more." Dante said, pulling his twin barrelled shotgun from its holster and easing the hammers back. He leant forward, arm with the shotgun resting calmly on his knee. Vergil glanced down at the lava, then glared up at his mocking brother.

"Fine. Do it then. I would rather you kill me now than force me to listen to your tired rhetoric."

Dante shrugged and pointed the shotgun right at Vergil's face, his finger tightening on the trigger. Vergil's eyes shot wide open and he opened his mouth to shout something.

"No?" Dante said for him when no sound came out. "Could it be you want to ask me _not_ to kill you?" Vergil narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth together.  
"I … do not wish to die. But … I will not ask you for help!" he shouted defiantly. Dante smiled smugly.  
"Pride cometh before a fall, you know."

Vergil said nothing. He hung there, fighting to maintain his grip and all the while knowing that he was losing it. Dante sighed, eased the hammers of the shotgun back, turned and strode away.

"Dante!"

He stopped and turned back. "Yes Vergil?"

Vergil ground his teeth so hard together it was a wonder they didn't crack under the pressure. Dante could see the internal battle inside his brother. He didn't want to give in and admit to weakness by asking for help, but at the same time he _knew_ that he was going to die if he didn't. No more comebacks, no more sequels, no extra lives, this was _it_.

When he remained silent Dante sighed again and strolled over to the edge. He leaned on his knee again, shotgun still visible. With his free hand however, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled something out. "I'll tell you what Vergil, we'll let Fate decide what to do with you."

Vergil glanced up, his expression puzzled. Dante opened his hand. Resting snugly in his palm was a battered old coin. Dante smiled, an expression devoid of any benevolence. "Heads, I walk away and let you fall. Tails, I help you up of my own free will."

Vergil's eyes widened more than they ever had before. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The pain from his wounds and the jarring in his shoulders were momentarily forgotten as the realisation hit home. His life depended on the toss of a coin! It was the ultimate humiliation. He was tempted to let go there and then and be done with it, but found he could not.

Dante gave the coin a few experimental tosses, grinning manically. Oh how he was going to _savour_ this moment! After all, how could his brother possibly know that it was a double-headed coin?

He had to resist the urge to laugh aloud as he tossed it one last time into the air. Time seemed to slow to an inevitable crawl as Vergil's gaze followed the circular objects every move. It tumbled through the air, spinning gently, before gravity took hold of it and dragged it back down in a twisted parody of his own situation – his fate falling squarely into Dante's hands.

The coin landed and Dante flipped it over and held it in his closed hand. Vergil wasn't watching any more, his eyes were screwed shut, his body trembling. All his training, confidence, iron control – it was all gone.

Dante slowly opened the palm of his hand and stared down at the coin. It was, of course, heads. It couldn't be anything else. Smirking, he looked down at Vergil, and froze.

A single tear fell from Vergil's closed eyes and curved down his cheek. Dante stared at it for a long, long moment.

Finally, he pocketed the coin, holstered the shotgun and reached down, extending his hand. "Looks like it's your lucky day, bro." He said simply. Vergil's eyes flicked open. He stared at Dante's outstretched hand, unable to believe what he was seeing. Finally, appearing to reach a decision, he grabbed it and let Dante haul him up onto the rooftop, whereupon they both collapsed, breathing heavily.

"You … utter bastard." Vergil said when he had caught his breath back. Dante let out a barking laugh.  
"Yeah, I guess I am at that."

Silence. Then Vergil said; "Now what?" Dante thought about it for a long moment. He shrugged and leaned back, hands behind his head, staring off into space.  
"Now, I guess, you go and take Fathers sword."  
Vergil eyed him suspiciously before speaking again. "And why the sudden change of heart?"  
"I don't know." Dante told him honestly. "Maybe a part of me said that you might actually use all that power for some good. Who knows? Maybe you will. I have to hope that's the case, otherwise I'm making an awfully big mistake."  
"And if you are wrong?" Vergil asked quietly. Dante sat upright and glanced across at him briefly.  
"I'm never wrong." He said matter-of-factly, and then sniggered.  
"You cannot be serious."  
"Yes I can! I just … chose not to. For the most part anyway."

Silence fell again. Dante brushed away some flakes of hot ash and sighed heavily. "Look Vergil, Sparda's power is sealed away in the Underworld. That's were you feel you belong. So long as you stay there, I don't care what you do with that power. I'm sure you can find a way to get back there on your own, even though the portal has closed."  
"Indeed."  
"So we go our separate ways. I meant what I said before though, this was our last fight. If you ever set foot on Earth again, you better not be looking to cause trouble."  
"I understand. There's nothing for me here at any rate. As you said, the Underworld is where I belong. It is my home."

Dante smiled again, sincerely this time. He pushed himself to his feet and Vergil did the same. He turned to face his brother and extended his battered hand. Vergil looked at it, and slowly took it. They shook hands.  
"So long Vergil." He said quietly.  
"Farewell Dante." Vergil replied. Then he turned and walked away. Dante watched him go for a moment, then called after him.

"Hey! Verge! What about your sword?"

Vergil stopped and turned. He glanced at the Yamato, the blade still sunk into the roof, and smiled. "Give it to Lady, with my compliments."

And then he turned and left.


	30. Chapter 30

--------------------  
**Devil May Cry: The End of the Line**  
_PART XXX_

Dante stared at the lifeless shape, sprawled out upon the red pedestal. Around it, a dozen or so crystal pillars ringed the pedestal, and the chamber itself was a marvel of perfectly carved obsidian.

But all Dante saw was Lady.

Slowly, he walked towards the body. It was the longest walk of his entire life. He felt like he had aged years by the time he reached her. Her chest was covered in dried blood, a large gaping wound in her mid-riff. Her mismatching eyes stared up at him, but he could tell that there was nothing behind them.

A jumble of thoughts and feelings writhed through his mind. And here he had thought for a moment that they had won – that they had saved the day. Oh, he had he supposed. After all, wasn't that what hero's do? Save the day? But … they also got the girl in the end as well.

Dante actually laughed aloud at that, and anyone watching might have been confused if they hadn't seen his eyes well up. It was funny … Lady wasn't just some typical female sidekick … she was a damned hero in her own right. She was the strongest human Dante had ever known.

Was.

Tears dripping onto her bloodstained vest, he reached down and, with leaden arms, scooped her body up in his arms. Blinking back more tears, he turned and carried her off.

---

The door Clanged shut behind him with an ominous finality. Vergil strode purposefully forwards, stopping for a moment to admire the sheer grandeur of it all. A throne room of immense size, crafted from white stone and polished marble, lit by a dazzling radiance that poured through the ring of pillars either side of him.

He moved onwards, towards the prize that lay at the end of the room. A decorative stone throne. The throne belonging to the King of Hell – Mundus. Or at least it had. Now it was his.

With deliberate slowness – he wanted to savour every second – he stepped up to the throne, which shrank down and reshaped itself to accommodate him perfectly. The brilliant light of the hall reflecting in his eyes, Vergil sat himself down, placing the Sparda sword upon his lap.

And that was it. He was the new ruler of the Underworld. He smiled. Not exactly. There were many Demon Princes that would begin squabbling amongst each other for power once word of Mundus' death spread. But Vergil had no doubt in his mind who would emerge triumphant.

He glanced idly down at the sword that radiated with all the power he had dreamt of his entire life, and noticed something. He had never really had the chance to examine the transformed blade up close, and now he did he saw minute scratches along its length. Peering closer, he saw that a tiny inscription had been carved in Demonic Scripture.

It read; _With great power comes great responsibility … and the ability to affect great consequences._

Vergil looked up and stared off into space, thinking. After a few moments, an idea crept into the front of his mind. The beginnings of another smile appeared on his face as it took hold. Oh yes, that would be and ideal start to his new reign, he thought …

---

Dante approached the ledge, still clutching Lady's lifeless form in his arms. He had closed her eyes, and as he gazed down at her face he noticed that she seemed so peaceful.

"I'm sorry." He said in a barely audible whisper. Below, the lava churned and flowed, giving off a searing heat. He sighed and held her body out over the ledge. "Goodbye …"

Something happened. He blinked, and stared as Lady began to … well there was no other word for it – _glow_. A golden aura of light enveloped her, and Dante watched on dumbfounded as the gaping wound in her chest miraculously closed and healed, not even leaving behind a scar to show where it had been. In fact all of her wounds, from deep cuts to minor scrapes and bruises, were healing.

Within seconds her body was as good as new, and when her form shuddered in his hands his eyes shot wide and he pulled her in close towards him. Lady sucked in a deep, shuddering breath that went on for so long it seemed as if she was trying to catch up on all the air she had missed out on before.

Her eyes flicked open and she stared dreamily around, as if she had just awoken from a deep sleep.

"Dante?" she mumbled, blinking in a confused way at him. Dante was speechless … for the first time in his entire life he was genuinely at a loss as to what to say.

Lacking the words, he opted for action, and he hugged her tightly to him, screwing his eyes up and trying to convince himself it wasn't all a dream – that he hadn't collapsed from exhaustion upon seeing her body and was imagining it all.

Several minutes passed, and eventually he had to let go of her to allow her some air. He set her down on her feet but had to steady her as she wobbled precariously. He led her away from the ledge as memories of recent events started to catch up with her.

"Oh my! Dante, I was-"  
"I know."  
"But I was-"  
"I know!"

She stopped and let out a laugh, her mind trapped halfway from being happy at this bizarre turn of events and confused as to _how_ and _why_.

"I, for one, don't believe in miracles." She said at last. "So … how?"

Dante simply smiled knowingly. "Lets say I think someone was just proving that I had made the right decision after all, and leave it at that." He said, winking.

---

Several Months Later …

"Sorry, no longer open for business." Said Dante, hanging up and returning to his packing. His office was actually cleaner now than it had ever been, due in no small part to the fact that he had cleared most of his stuff out – save for a few bits and pieces that he was now in the process of placing into a worn cardboard box.

He picked up a picture frame containing the photograph of Eva, his mother. He placed it in the box and moved along, picking up another picture – this one of Trish, Lucia and himself, together after a job they had done in California a few years back. He smiled sadly and placed it in the box along with the rest.

The bell over the door jingled as someone strolled in. Without turning to face them, Dante continued his packing. "I'm sorry," he said "We're closed – for good."

"Too bad, I was dying to use your famous bathroom."

Dante grinned and spun to face Lady. It was quite a shock to see her with long hair and wearing casual jeans and a sweater – without her normal obligatory gun belts and combat webbing.

"Hey! Haven't seen you in weeks! What you been up to?"

Lady shrugged and looped her thumbs through her jeans belt. "Oh you know, packing for my long overdue vacation. I would have thought that's what you were doing as well, except I notice that your sign has been taken down. And did I hear right before? Closed for good?"

Dante rolled his eyes and turned back to finish the last of his packing. "Yes, you heard right. It's been a long time and I haven't heard so much as a rumour of a real contract. I reckon Vergil has done a passable job of taming the Underworld. Or more likely, has them all so busy fighting each other that they've since forgotten about us puny humans."

"So you're quitting?" she asked, not sounding as surprised as she intended. Dante let out a short laugh and carried on working.

"I've been sitting around scoffing pizza for far too long. If the world needs saving again, fine, I'll be around to save it. But in the meantime I think I really have to go and get a life, because this job isn't paying anymore and I'm getting too lazy."

Lady strolled across and leaned against the banister. "I guess I see your point. But if you don't have anything planned, I was wondering …" she stuttered and stopped, before trying again. "I mean, if you aren't busy, how would you like to come on holiday? With me?"

"Ah-ha!" Dante exclaimed, making her jump.  
"What?"

He turned and jogged past her and stormed up the stairs, leaving Lady standing around mildly confused. When he returned, he had his hands held suspiciously behind his back.  
"What?" She asked him again, feeling quite nervous. Honestly, she chided herself, you can face off against ferocious demons but this has you jittery!

"Happy Birthday!" Dante said cheerfully, bringing his hands around and handing two wooden boxes to her, each bearing a stylish (Or not) pink ribbon. Lady gaped at him.  
"How did you know?" she gasped, taking the presents from him.  
"The small ones from me, the long one is from Vergil." He said, dodging her question. Lady shot a surprised look at him at the mention of his brother's name, but he remained tight lipped.

The one from Vergil contained a long, gently curved Tachi sword in a smooth black lacquered scabbard. Lady took it out and drew the blade, gazing at it in admiration.

"Its beautiful." She said.  
"He … wanted you to have that." Dante explained.

Lady sheathed the Yamato and placed it on the now empty desk, before pulling the smaller box towards her and opening it. Inside the red velvet lined container, nestled two twin custom handguns – Colt .45's by the look of them, bearing the words _Luce & Ombra_ on their metal casing.

"And I'm sure my father wouldn't have objected to you having those." Dante added. "I know its no replacement for the Kalina-Ann, but-" He didn't get a chance to finish as Lady flung her arms around his neck

"Thank you, they're wonderful." Lady said, releasing him and pulling out the weapons, twirling them experimentally. Dante watched her and smiled. Some girls liked flowers, chocolates, even diamonds. Lady? She liked weapons. That was just the kind of person she was – like him.

She helped Dante to finish packing, and together they headed for the door. Dante stopped in front of it and turned, clutching the cardboard box in his arms as he surveyed the spartan office that had served as his workplace and home for years.

"I'm gonna miss this place." He said quietly.

From the desk, the phone rang. They both turned and stared at it. Lady glanced across at Dante, watching him carefully. He frowned, watching the phone rattle and ring. Then he turned and walked out of the office and into the street beyond. Lady followed him, and they set off together, chatting and laughing as the sun set on the horizon.

In the office, the phone continued to ring for a while longer, and then fell silent.

---

Snow drifted gently down, settling upon the mountain peaks like a flurry of tiny white insects. They were watched by a stern looking man dressed in thick black winter clothing. He lifted a pair of sunglasses and perched them on his nose, then turned to another similar looking man.

Together they stared down into the valley, which was packed full of endless stretches of snow and ice.  
"How long until we locate the temple?" One asked. The other shook his head slowly.  
"They don't know. It's a large structure, but it is buried under a ton of ice from that avalanche." He replied.

Down in the valley, dozens and dozens of people worked with heavy machinery to dig through the mountains of snow, as the gentle blizzard washed over them all. Above, a helicopter flew past the two men standing upon the ledge, overlooking the work. Its spinning blades kicked up torrents of snowflakes as it passed.

Upon its sleek black body, a logo was just visible. A snake coiled around in a circle, swallowing its own tail. Beneath the logo, printed in block lettering, was the word:

**Uroboros**

The icy wind howled as it flew into the distance.

THE END

---

Thats it! The End! I really enjoyed writing this and I hope people enjoyed reading it as well. A million thank you's to everyone who has reviewed, I honestly wouldnt have finished this if it wasnt for you all.

EDIT - Tidied up a few bits and pieces to make the text flow smoother. I swear, spelling errors _breed_! Anyway, I have decided to write a sequal to this, which will be a fic centred on Lady and some of her adventures. Fic2 coming soon! (With any luck)


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